Protect an Explorer tab with pinning

Pin an Explorer tab when you want to keep that tab available for a particular location. Pinning protects the tab from replacement by actions outside the Explorer; it does not freeze the tab or control whether it returns after restart.

Pin the tab

Open the tab’s context menu and choose Pin Tab. Phials records the tab’s current location as its pinned location.

When you choose a favorite, drive, saved search, or another location in the Navigator panel, Phials normally reuses the most recently active unpinned Explorer tab in the active tab group. A pinned Explorer tab is not eligible for that replacement. If the group has no unpinned Explorer tab, Phials creates one for the requested location.

Middle-clicking a Navigator location or using another explicit new-tab action also creates a new Explorer tab, whether the current tab is pinned or not.

Navigate while the tab is pinned

Back, Forward, Up, breadcrumbs, folder opening, and typed paths continue to navigate inside a pinned Explorer tab. When you move away from the recorded location, the tab action becomes Revert to pinned location. Choose it to navigate back without restoring an older selection, history, or file-view snapshot.

To remove replacement protection, open the tab’s context menu and choose Unpin Tab. If you unpin while away from the recorded location, Phials discards that pinned location. Pinning the tab again records its then-current location.

Pinning does not decide which tabs restore after restart. Phials restores every tab that was still open, including unpinned Explorer tabs. You can also close a pinned tab through Close Tab, the standard close shortcut, or middle-click.

For the difference between Navigator replacement and navigation inside an Explorer tab, see Navigate folders and paths.