Microsoft Edge | Tabs, address bar, and search | Windows 11
Managing tabs, address bar, and search settings in Edge on Windows 11
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The "Drag to group tabs" option under Settings / Appearance / Tabs can be disabled
How to prevent accidental tab grouping when dragging tabs in Edge?
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(54.400000000000006, 2%, 15%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EYH%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Yicheng Hsu
5
Reputation points
Hi all,
I've run into a small but persistent issue in Microsoft Edge. When dragging tabs to rearrange them, it's very easy to accidentally group two tabs together. This usually happens when I drop a tab too close to another, and Edge automatically creates a tab group—even though I didn’t intend to.
While tab groups are useful in some cases, this behavior disrupts my workflow and forces me to manually ungroup tabs. Is there a way to prevent tabs from auto-grouping unless I explicitly choose to group them?
Microsoft Edge | Tabs, address bar, and search | Windows 11
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![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(22.400000000000002, 72%, 12%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EMK%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Michael Kucharski 0 Reputation points2026-03-06T16:22:51.9+00:00 dumbest feature ever, im constantly having to reopen work because i accidentally "merged" tabs and i have no idea how to separate them or have found a way to disable them. about to stop using edge finally i like having tabs, but not split screen on one page tabs
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2 answers
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![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(22.400000000000002, 81%, 12%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EAD%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Arlene D 30,465 Reputation points Independent Advisor2025-08-16T13:07:42.58+00:00 Thanks for reaching out. Which version of Edge are you using right now? There is no option to disable automatic tab grouping. Edge groups tabs when you drop one too close to another.
Try dragging each tab a little farther away when rearranging so you avoid grouping. You can also press Alt+Shift+I and send feedback to request a setting that only groups tabs when you select Add tab to new group.
Let me know how it goes.
Regards,
Arlene D.