Can't double click on surface book touchscreen

Question

I need to double click on an email in a list to open one.  But double clicking on surface book screen only makes the screen increase in size, not allowing me to select the email.  I tried the tap and a half and slide, and the slide to the right to select, but the best I get is a "skeleton" view of the email description and subject I want to select, offset a few inches to the right.  I can't select that either.

Answer 1

Hi Dan-Pilon,

Thank you for reaching out. Are you still unable to Are you still having difficulty with the Surface Book touchscreen? Make sure you have the latest updates are installed for your device. Please be informed that when using Microsoft Edge, you can only click/tap once when you open a link/attachment; same goes for other Internet browsers. If you have any issues with the touchscreen, click here.

Thank you Joseph.  I do have all the updates, and  I've done more investigating.  For years, I've used Xfinity email which opens an email from a list by double clicking on one.  The selected email opens in the tab (window) that I'm on.  When I'm done I click Close and the original list of emails returns to the screen.  This works with my Surface Book k eyboard/touchpad attached with Edge and Chrome.

 - It also works with the keyboard detached by using a touchscreen double tap on Chrome.  This is because Chrome has not implemented a double tap to zoom the image on the screen.

 - With the keyboard detached, the touchscreen double tap on Edge zooms the image on the screen, instead of selecting an item.

So each browser has implemented something different for atouchscreen double tap.  And they seem to be mutually exclusive.   Both Chrome and Edge implemented pinch or stretch to zoom the screen, so that operation is handled.

I'd like to use Edge instead of Chrome because reports say it uses up less battery.  And I've stumbled on a way to select an email several times (see below.)

Community member Hadleighn uses a tap and hold on the screen to make a selection, but this brings up an Xfinity menu that allows me to open the email in the split screen.  I'd rather not use half the screen if I can find a way to have it open in the window I'm in.

I've tried the tap, tap-slide and the slide to select from MS article Touch: tap, swipe, and beyond, but 99% of the time that creates a copy of the email description I'm tapping on to appear superimposed on the list slightly below and to the right of the original email description.   And I can't get that to open.

But here's the thing, the other 1% of the time, one of these two methods (or something else I inadvertently do) causes selection of the correct email and opens it in the window I'm on.  It's happened 4 times, but I can't duplicate whatever technique caused it to work correctly.   There's a way to do it.  I hope someone can help.

Answer 2

I need to double click on an email in a list to open one.  But double clicking on surface book screen only makes the screen increase in size, not allowing me to select the email.  I tried the tap and a half and slide, and the slide to the right to select, but the best I get is a "skeleton" view of the email description and subject I want to select, offset a few inches to the right.  I can't select that either.

I subsequently tracked this down to an Edge browser problem.  I downloaded Google Chrome, and using the detached touchscreen in the tablet mode, double clicking on the touchscreen works perfectly with Chrome.

I have also narrowed down several problems to Edge in tablet mode using a local big city newspaper website that replicates the paper newspaper. Chrome works with this site, too, with the detached touchscreen.  (PS: All my websites (CNET, Engadget. PCMag, AVS Forum, etc.) work OK with both Chrome and Edge with the keyboard attached.)

I like and want to use Edge when the touchscreen is detached from the keyboard because I've read several reports that it uses less battery than Chrome.  I am ecstatic about this computer and am glad MIcrosoft had the courage to produce the hardware and lead the competitors out of the doldrums.  I hope someone can fix this Edge problem.  I'm using Xfinity email and I suspect many many others are having the same problem.

Answer 3

Hi Dan-Pilon,

Thank you for reaching out. Are you still unable to Are you still having difficulty with the Surface Book touchscreen? Make sure you have the latest updates are installed for your device. Please be informed that when using Microsoft Edge, you can only click/tap once when you open a link/attachment; same goes for other Internet browsers. If you have any issues with the touchscreen, click here.

Answer 4

For my surface book, it double clicks when I tap and hold on the screen!

Answer 5

For my surface book, it double clicks when I tap and hold on the screen!

Hadleighn, thank you.  I tried a tap and hold on the screen, but it doesn't work.  I've explained this in a reply to Joseph Agu in the post above.  I've actually gotten some combination of tap, tap-slide and tap and swipe to work about 4 times out of hundreds of tries.

Please check out my explanation in that post, and let me know if there's something I'm missing.  Thank you.