Explicit tablet mode switch

Question

Can we get an explicit tablet mode switch inWindows 11?

Here's the use case:

• Windows 11 auto-selects tablet mode if under certain circumstances
  • For example, if you have a 2-in-1 PC (like a Surface, Lenovo Yoga, HP x360, etc) and you "tent" it by folding the keyboard back
  • It's also selected if you detach (not fold back) the keyboard on a Surface or similar tablet PC
• Under Win10, this would autoselect tablet mode, same as Win11: the system would note the sensor input and change modes
  • The task bar changes to autohide, the Start menu changes to fullscreen (Win10), button and menus change to become larger and less dense
    • The mode change from desktop<>tablet also provides hints from the OS to other applications to, eg reduce control density:
      • Web pages can change layout
      • Office applications reduce options and space out controls
      • Context menus are more widely space
      • Etc.
  • The difference in Win10 is the ability to explicitly switch to/from tablet mode; Win11 doesn't offer an explicit switch at all
  • This does make sense in general: Windows thinks you don't have a precision input device available, and changes modes and offers hints to compensate. This is normally good behaviour
• However, it's common to "tent" a 2-in-1 and use a desktop keyboard and mouse
  • In this situation (keyboard & mouse) the user does not likely want tablet mode: they want a more dense screen layout, the non-auto-hide taskbar, and they don't want applications to use the tablet-mode hints from the OS
  • In Win10, this would mean you can switch off tablet mode: problem solved!
  • In Windows 11, there's no way to do this
    • There's no quick setting, like Win10 has, which would be ideal
    • There's not even an explict control panel setting to turn off
• There are unhelpful suggestions in the help system and in forums, suggesting the user turn off auto-rotate
  • When tenting a 2-in-1, we still want the screen to rotate.
  • What we want is to have the operating system continue to work as if there's a precision input device connected

It's good design to have the system try to select the mode based on conditions, but it's bad to not allow the user to override it.

Suggestions:

• Add an explicit switch, ideally in quick settings, like Windows 10 had
  • This has the added bonus of helping with tablets like, eg, the HP X2, which aren't great at detecting when the keyboard is folded and take input when they shouldn't.
• Add a control panel option to disable/enable tablet mode. This isn't ideal, but it's better than nothing
• Disable touch mode based when "tenting" if a precision input device (a mouse or keyboard) is available;
  • This isn't ideal, either, but it at least solves the tenting issue for tablet PCs

ETA: here's another minor irritant: in tablet mode, pressing the Windows key on the keyboard to pull up the Start menu doesn't work. If you have a Bluetooth-connected keyboard, this breaks a UI convention that's been in-place since Win95.

<Changed to a question>

Answer 1

Suggestions:

• Add an explicit switch, ideally in quick settings, like Windows 10 had
  • This has the added bonus of helping with tablets like, eg, the HP X2, which aren't great at detecting when the keyboard is folded and take input when they shouldn't.
• Add a control panel option to disable/enable tablet mode. This isn't ideal, but it's better than nothing
• Disable touch mode based when "tenting" if a precision input device (a mouse or keyboard) is available;

I couldn't agree with these suggestions more. It seems like since Windows 8 (At least) Microsoft has been trying to make Windows more tablet friendly, but by not giving an option to choose if you want tablet or desktop mode, they've done this awkward halfway attempt. It's irritating to desktop users and tablet users because it fails to please either side.