Help & Documentation
On this page: Quick start · Hotkeys · Merging · Auto-routing · Tab switcher · Reopen closed tab · Crash/reboot restore · Folder hotkeys · Workspaces · Settings reference · Your files · Troubleshooting
Quick start
- Pin it. After installing from the Microsoft Store, right-click TidyMerge in the Start menu → Pin to taskbar. The icon is your merge button.
- First merge. Open a few folders, then click the TidyMerge icon. Every Explorer window collapses into one tabbed window — duplicates removed, tabs sorted by name, and a toast reports what happened.
- Enable background mode. Right-click the tray icon → Settings... → Background service tab → check Run as tray service on Windows startup → Save. Then launch TidyMerge from the Start menu once — it starts in tray mode instead of merging. The tray icon may hide behind the ^ chevron near the clock.
- Try the hotkeys from anywhere: Ctrl+Shift+M merges, Ctrl+Shift+Space opens the tab switcher, Ctrl+Shift+T reopens the last closed tab.
- Save a workspace. Open a project's folders, right-click the tray icon → Workspaces → Save current as..., then name the set in the window that opens. Restore it later from the tray menu or by right-clicking TidyMerge's taskbar icon (Jump List).
Hotkey reference
Every global hotkey works only while the tray service is running, and all of them are customizable in Settings → Background service (folder hotkeys have their own tab). Changes apply immediately — no restart.
| Action | Default |
|---|---|
| Merge all Explorer windows into one | Ctrl+Shift+M |
| Open the tab quick-switcher | Ctrl+Shift+Space |
| Reopen the most recently closed tab (last 25) | Ctrl+Shift+T |
| Open a favorite folder as a tab | You define them, e.g. Ctrl+Alt+1 |
| Bypass auto-routing for one new window | hold Ctrl+Shift while it opens (fixed) |
Hotkey format: any combination of Ctrl, Shift, Alt, Win joined with +, ending in one key — a letter, digit, F1–F24, Space, Tab, or backtick. Type it as text into the field and Save. Leave a field empty to disable that hotkey. Always include at least one modifier.
Inside the switcher: type to filter (multiple words all must match), ↑/↓ to move, Enter to switch, Esc to dismiss.
Merging windows
Click the TidyMerge icon (works without the tray), press the merge hotkey, left-click the tray icon, or use the right-click menu (below). One window — the survivor — absorbs every tab from the others, and the emptied windows close. Folders on your excluded list are always left alone, and system surfaces like Control Panel are never touched.
Right-click menu. TidyMerge can add a Merge windows with TidyMerge item to the Windows right-click menu — right-click your desktop or a folder's empty background to merge. Turn it on under Settings → Background. One Windows quirk: a newly added right-click item only appears after your next sign-in (Windows caches the menu), and on Windows 11's default menu it sits under Show more options. The merge is always instant from the hotkey or tray icon, so you never have to wait for it. (The Microsoft Store edition places this command directly in the modern top-level Windows 11 menu.)
- Survivor window (Settings → General): the window with the most tabs (default), the foreground window, or the oldest window.
- Sort merged tabs: arriving tabs are sorted — by folder name (default), full path, grouped by drive, or not at all. The survivor's existing tabs never move.
- Duplicates: two windows showing the same folder become one tab (on by default; comparison ignores case and trailing slashes).
- Virtual folders (Home, Quick Access, Recycle Bin, This PC): folded in as tabs when Windows allows it; the rare one it won't allow is left open, never closed.
- Feedback: toast (default), beep, or silent — Settings → General → On success.
If only one window is open, or all tabs are already in one window, the merge reports "nothing to do" and touches nothing — Windows 11 itself often opens folders as tabs, so this is common and fine.
Automatic routing
With the tray service running and Auto-route new Explorer windows as tabs enabled, any new Explorer window becomes a tab in your existing window within about a second. TidyMerge deliberately skips:
- windows opened while you hold Ctrl+Shift (one-time bypass),
- tabs you drag out into their own window (the drag gesture is detected),
- excluded folders, virtual folders, and search results,
- everything, while routing is paused: right-click the tray icon → Pause auto-tab routing (a checkmark toggle; hotkeys keep working while paused).
Tab quick-switcher
Press Ctrl+Shift+Space to get a searchable list of every open Explorer tab, each with its full path. Type a few letters, press Enter, and TidyMerge selects that exact tab — not just the window it lives in. Two folders both named docs are never a coin flip: the paths tell them apart, and Enter lands on the right one even when both are tabs in the same window.
The switcher opens on the monitor your cursor is on and lists real folders only. The first switch after the tray starts can take a few seconds while Windows' automation warms up; after that it's quick.
Reopen a closed tab
Ctrl+Shift+T reopens the most recently closed folder, like in a browser; press again for the one before. The tray keeps the last 25 closures, and the history now survives a restart or reboot — the folder you closed yesterday is still one keystroke away today. It skips folders you already have open again.
Your tabs survive a crash or reboot
TidyMerge quietly remembers the set of folders you have open. If Explorer crashes, or you reboot and your windows are gone, the next time the tray starts it offers a one-click “restore your N folders” — reopening them all as tabs in one window. It only ever offers (it never reopens windows uninvited), and only when there’s actually a lost session to bring back. Saved as a plain-text file on your own PC; nothing is sent anywhere.
Folder hotkeys
Bind a combo to a folder you open constantly: Settings → Folder hotkeys, type the combo (e.g. Ctrl+Alt+1), click Add folder..., pick the folder, Save. Pressing it anywhere in Windows opens that folder as a tab in your current Explorer window — or a new window if none is open. Settings refuses combos that collide with each other or with the main hotkeys.
Workspaces
A workspace is a named snapshot of every real folder open in Explorer. To save one: tray menu → Workspaces → Save current as... (or Settings → About → Workspaces...), then click Save current as... in the Workspaces window and name it. Virtual folders are skipped and duplicates removed automatically.
To restore — every path opens as a tab in one window:
- Taskbar Jump List: right-click TidyMerge's taskbar icon; your workspaces are listed (up to 8). Works even when the tray isn't running.
- Tray menu: Workspaces → click the name.
- Workspaces window: select and click Restore. Rename and Delete live here too.
Workspaces are plain JSON files in %APPDATA%\UpDog Technologies\TidyMerge\Workspaces\ — copy the folder to another machine to take them with you.
Settings reference
| Tab | Setting | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| General | Survivor window | Which window absorbs the others in a merge: most tabs (default), foreground, or oldest. |
| Sort merged tabs | Order of arriving tabs: folder name (default), full path, by drive, or insertion order. | |
| On success | Merge feedback: toast (default), beep, or silent. | |
| Eliminate duplicate tabs | Same folder in two windows → one tab (default on). | |
| Excluded paths | Add folder... / Remove | Listed folders are never merged or auto-routed. Exact match — subfolders need their own entries. |
| Folder hotkeys | Hotkey + Add folder... | Global combos that open a chosen folder as a tab. Requires the tray. |
| Background service | Run as tray service on Windows startup | Starts the tray at login (a standard Windows startup task you can also see under Windows Settings → Apps → Startup). |
| Auto-route new Explorer windows as tabs | The automatic routing described above. | |
| Merge / Tab switcher / Reopen hotkeys | The three global hotkeys, as text. Empty disables. | |
| Stop tray service now | Stops the running tray; the status line beside it tells you whether one is running. | |
| About | Version, support email, Workspaces... | Your version number lives here — include it in support emails. |
Saving Settings applies to a running tray immediately — hotkeys re-register and the auto-route toggle flips live. No restart, ever.
Where TidyMerge keeps things
| What | Where |
|---|---|
| Settings | %APPDATA%\UpDog Technologies\TidyMerge\settings.json |
| Workspaces | %APPDATA%\UpDog Technologies\TidyMerge\Workspaces\ |
| Diagnostic logs | %LOCALAPPDATA%\UpDog Technologies\TidyMerge\ — last-run.log (latest one-shot run, overwritten each run), tray.log (tray history), crash.log (only if something crashed) |
All plain text, all local. No tracking, no network requests, no accounts — see the privacy policy.
Troubleshooting
A hotkey doesn't fire
First: is the tray running? Settings → Background service shows the status. No tray = no global hotkeys. Enable "Run as tray service on Windows startup", Save, and launch TidyMerge from the Start menu once.
Second: another app may own the combo. Global hotkeys are first-come, first-served across Windows; if something registered Ctrl+Shift+M first, TidyMerge's registration fails quietly (logged in tray.log as hotkey-register ... success=False). Pick a less contested combo like Ctrl+Alt+F12 — saving applies immediately.
Hotkeys are re-registered automatically after sleep/resume; if one dies specifically after waking, email tray.log.
The tray icon is missing
Windows 11 hides new tray icons behind the ^ chevron near the clock — look there first, and drag it onto the taskbar to keep it visible (or Windows Settings → Personalization → Taskbar → Other system tray icons → TidyMerge → On).
If File Explorer crashed or restarted, tray icons die with the taskbar — TidyMerge rebuilds its icon automatically within moments; no action needed. If it never comes back, the tray process itself died: check crash.log, restart TidyMerge from the Start menu, and please email the log.
If it stopped appearing at login, check Windows Settings → Apps → Startup — if TidyMerge was switched off there, Windows requires you to switch it back on there.
The right-click "Merge windows with TidyMerge" item isn't showing
Most likely you haven't signed in since enabling it. Windows caches the right-click menu, so a newly added item appears after your next sign-in or reboot — not the instant you turn it on. This is normal Windows behavior (even Microsoft's own tools work this way). Sign out and back in, or reboot, then check again.
On Windows 11's default menu it lives under Show more options (or press Shift+F10); if you've restored the classic/full menu it appears inline. Make sure the toggle is on under Settings → Background. You never have to wait for it — the merge is always instant from the hotkey (Ctrl+Shift+M) or the tray icon.
Merge left a window behind
Usually deliberate: the folder is in your Excluded paths (remember: exact match — a subfolder of an excluded path is not excluded, and may be the window in question), or it's a virtual-folder window (Home, Recycle Bin) that Windows wouldn't allow as a tab — TidyMerge leaves those open rather than closing them — or it's a system surface like Control Panel that can't be a tab.
To see exactly what a merge did, set Settings → General → On success → Toast notification and merge again — the toast itemizes what was merged, deduped, and closed.
The switcher doesn't appear, or flashes and closes
If the tray isn't running, the hotkey does nothing — see the hotkey item above. If no real folder tabs are open, you get a toast instead of the switcher.
Rarely, Windows refuses to let a background app take keyboard focus (typically over full-screen apps or during UAC prompts); the switcher retries, and closes itself if it loses rather than floating dead on screen. Press the hotkey again — the retry almost always lands. The first switch after tray startup can also take a few seconds; later ones are fast.
Auto-routing grabbed a window I dragged out
Drag-out detection is supposed to leave torn-off windows alone. If one snapped back: drag it out again while holding Ctrl+Shift (one-time bypass), or pause routing from the tray menu first.
Then please email — this specific case depends on timing quirks of individual Windows builds and reports are actively wanted. Include your Windows build (Win+R → winver) and tray.log.
"A Windows update may have changed File Explorer"
That message is TidyMerge's update canary: every tab operation timed out in the way that signals a Windows update changed Explorer's internals. Your windows are left untouched when this happens.
Check the Microsoft Store for a TidyMerge update (Store → Library → Get updates) — Windows-update breakage is treated as a critical bug and fixes ship as fast as Store review allows. Already current? Email the Windows build number shown in the message; you may be the first on a new build.
Reopen-closed-tab says there's nothing to reopen
Closures are only tracked while the tray is running, the list holds the last 25 and clears when the tray exits, and folders you already have open again are skipped. If you get no toast at all, the hotkey didn't fire — see the first item.
What should I email when reporting a bug?
Four things: your TidyMerge version (Settings → About), your Windows version (Win+R → winver), what you did and expected, and the relevant log from %LOCALAPPDATA%\UpDog Technologies\TidyMerge\ — last-run.log for an icon-click merge (copy it before retrying; it's overwritten each run), tray.log for hotkey/switcher/routing issues, crash.log if something died.
Send to support@updogtechnologies.com — it goes straight to the developer.
Didn't find it? The Support & FAQ page covers buying, trial, refunds, and privacy questions — or email support@updogtechnologies.com directly.