Microsoft may have abandoned Sets in Windows 10 -- what now for app tabs?

Windows 10 boxes

In what will come as something of a disappointment to many, Microsoft seems to have decided to abandon the Sets feature of Windows 10. This highly-anticipated feature was to bring tabs to apps, making it easier to work with multiple instances of the same program.

In the middle of last year, though, Microsoft removed Sets from Insider builds of Windows 10,  promising that the feature would return in a future build. But a tweet from senior program manager Rich Turner suggests that Sets is no more... although that might not mean that app tabs are completely off the agenda.

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Back in June, with the release of Windows 10 build 17704, Microsoft put Sets on hold, saying: "Thank you for your continued support of testing Sets. We continue to receive valuable feedback from you as we develop this feature helping to ensure we deliver the best possible experience once it’s ready for release. Starting with this build, we’re taking Sets offline to continue making it great. Based on your feedback, some of the things we’re focusing on include improvements to the visual design and continuing to better integrate Office and Microsoft Edge into Sets to enhance workflow. If you have been testing Sets, you will no longer see it as of today’s build, however, Sets will return in a future WIP flight. Thanks again for your feedback".

Since then, there has pretty much been radio silence on the issue, until Rich Turner popped up on Twitter this weekend, responding to a query about tabs in the console. He tweeted:

With no official announcement about the future of tabs, it's a little difficult -- as How-To Geek's Chris Hoffman points out -- to determine Microsoft's plans from this single tweet. But for anyone who was looking forward to Sets, it certainly doesn't look like good news.

However, it appears that a tabbed interface for Windows apps may not have been completely abandoned... it is just likely to take a different form.

Image credit: Friemann / Shutterstock

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