Microsoft's new 'Sets' could be the best Windows feature in years

Windows is about to get a serious productivity upgrade.

Microsoft is testing a new "Sets" feature that allows you to group multiple applications into the same window, similar to how you would organize tabs in a browser.

Microsoft is only teasing a very early preview of the feature for now -- it's rolling out to a small subset of Microsoft's Insider program that seeds betas of new Windows versions to those who opt-in -- but it's already clear the feature will be a huge change.

While Windows 10 has had multitasking features like Task View baked in from the very beginning, these features have been more focused on making it easier to switch between applications. Sets promises to cut out many of the extra steps required by app switching by letting you group multiple apps in the same window.

Via Giphy

"The concept behind this experience is to make sure that everything related to your task: relevant webpages, research documents, necessary files and applications, is connected and available to you in one click.," Microsoft's Terry Myerson wrote in an email to Windows Insiders.

The idea, according to Myerson, is that users can group windows of apps together based on what they're working on. So you may have one window with email and a browser tab open, and another with PowerPoint and Excel.

What's more, if you're logged into your Office 365 account, your windows can follow you across machines to make it easier to pick up where you left off without individually re-launching each app.

Again, there's still a lot we don't know about Sets, such as how the feature will work with non-Microsoft apps. Even the final name of the feature may change before it eventually launches, the company says.

Still, just from what we've already seen, Sets looks like a major upgrade for anyone who multitasks.