Tab Search is now available on Chrome for Windows with one small trick

Chrome is clearly getting a tab search feature that is increasingly available across multiple development channels at this point both out of the box and behind a flag. As it stands on Chromebooks, you can access this feature in the Beta Channel in Chrome OS 87 with a flag, but that same flag doesn’t kick the feature into gear on the current stable version 86 for the time being.

The same is true with Chrome 86 on Windows as well, but it turns out there is a little tweak that you can invoke that will get your tab search feature up and running right now in the Stable channel without any flags or further setting changes. If you’d like to take a look at this feature in action, check out the video below or, if you don’t mind a bit of light work, follow the instructions below (courtesy of Techdows via Reddit) to get this new feature up and running on your Windows device right now.

Get Chrome tab search working on Windows

• Ensure that you are on the latest build of Chrome (version 86) by heading to your Chrome settings and clicking on About Chrome. If you are not, be sure to update.
• Right click on the Chrome icon on your desktop and select Properties.
• In the Target box, you simply need to add --enable-features=TabSearch to the end of what is already there (see the image below for guidance).

• Finally, click the OK button followed by Apply. You’ll be asked to for Admin rights to make the change, so hit Continue.
• Relaunch Chrome and you will now have the carat to the right of your right-most tab that gives you the ability to quickly search through all your open tabs.

When it comes to backdoor tweaks, this is a pretty simple process and gets you to the end result pretty quickly. Honestly, it won’t be much longer until this feature likely shows up in Stable Chrome builds, but it may remain behind a flag for a bit longer. For the time being, this is a straightforward way you can begin learning to use the new feature right now if it is something you’ve been waiting to experiment with.