In less than a month, Microsoft will release the system Windows 11, which will gradually replace the current “dozens”. The promotion of the number in the system name is (as recently with macOS) associated with a significant change in design, which is obvious at first glance. However, this does not mean that this is the only change, there is a significantly larger amount of news under the hood, which we described in detail in this article. Now let’s take a look at how Windows 11 behaves on tablets, because unlike Windows 10, there is no stone unturned in this area.
A little history
The fact that Microsoft is serious about touch devices was first seen in 2012 on the system Windows 8. After perfect desktop “sevens”, the Redmonds came up with a hybrid system that could adapt to different types of devices. Windows 8 laid the basics of control on touch devices – the Start menu consisted of clear tiles, applications launched in full screen mode with the possibility of “halving” the screen in two parts, more user-friendly modern settings appeared, etc. Controlling the system on tablets was facilitated by comfortable touch gestures.
The glorious idea of introducing a hybrid system failed because the vast majority of users ran it on the desktop, and all those tablet tweaks were just an obstacle, as they couldn’t be removed or delayed at the system level. Although Microsoft did in Windows 8.1 several changes (for example, closing full-screen applications with a cross), but the success did not come due to the small number of Windows tablets on the market.
Windows 10 they went a little differently – there was a switch between desktop and tablet mode in the system, so the owners of standard computers didn’t bother with gadgets for tablets (apart from the tiles in the reduced Start menu, which almost no one used on the desktop anyway). In tablet mode, the Start screen was switched to full screen mode, in fullscreen the applications themselves opened with the convenient option of halving the screen for two programs side by side. The gestures changed a bit compared to the “eights”, but the usability of the system on tablets did not decrease in any way.
But Microsoft found that this dual use was too confusing for users. So he started thinking again about how to make the system friendly for both camps, but this time so that the environment and the way of control would be the same for both modes.
Windows 11: There is no stone left on the tablets
If you are used to touch control in the “dozens”, you will have to throw all the habits behind your head in the “elevens”. The behavior of the system has completely changed, as has the control itself. The switch between desktop and tablet mode has disappeared, as the environment looks virtually the same in both modes; on tablets, the only difference is the increased spacing between the icons in the Taskbar, as well as between the controls in selected applications (such as Office). If you have a hybrid device, the transition is automatic and cannot be affected.
Due to larger spacing of icons in the Taskbar, you may not be able to see the icons of all pinned / open applications on your tablet at once. If you had a lot of applications open in the “dozens”, you could use the arrows in the Taskbar to scroll through them. However, “Eleven” can’t do anything like that, recently opened applications simply don’t appear in the Taskbar and you have to hunt them in the multitasking menu.
Start without tiles
However, you don’t have to start applications only from the Taskbar, there is also a Start menu. It is the same on tablets as on computers, which on the one hand is consistent, on the other hand it is necessary to aim your fingers at smaller icons. In addition, the Start menu has a uniform size, so you can’t expand it to fill the screen on tablets.
New “multi-finger” gestures
In Redmond, the control gestures have been completely redesigned to make the system as comfortable as possible on the tablet. Tablet mode in Windows 10 only worked with dragging gestures from the sides of the screen, eleven adds gestures anywhere on the screen. The basic idea is simple – to unify the method of control with touchpads on notebooks. Unfortunately, the practice lags a bit; while you can fine-tune the gestures on the touchpad at your discretion (for three and four fingers), you do not have such an option on the touch screen. Microsoft set it up like this:
- Drag three fingers from top to bottom – to show the area
- Three-finger swipe left / right – toggles between the last two applications
- Swipe from bottom to top – displays the multitasking window / maximizes the application
- Four-finger swipe left / right – toggles between faces
- Four-finger swipe up – shows a list of open areas
Too bad there is no way to edit at least four-finger gestures. I don’t use virtual desktops, but I would appreciate the same gestures that I like to use in the following way – up and down volume change, left and right windows pinning to the sides. So maybe next time.
Because application switching is provided by the gestures mentioned above, Microsoft has dared to dig over the original gestures from the sides of the screen. They are newly doing the following activities:
- Drag from above – grabs the open application by the header
- Drag left to open widgets
- Drag right to open notifications
- Pulling from below – does nothing
I immediately admit that I preferred “decimal” gestures, and I will immediately explain why. In Windows 10 tablet mode, applications opened in full screen mode, in Windows 11 they open in windows (minimized / maximized, depending on how you last closed the application). For this reason, the original gesture does not work when you drag the application from top to bottom; now you have to hit the cross with your finger. By dragging from above, you just grab the maximized application by the title bar and you can scroll around the screen with its window; Fortunately, snapping to the sides has remained and has been sympathetically improved – you can also use two applications side by side in portrait mode.
Dragging from the left opens widgets that I also didn’t like; I’d rather rely on my sources of information to subscribe to what artificial intelligence pushes me. The right gesture opens notifications that were associated with quick switches in Windows 10. Honestly, I liked to use this gesture precisely because of those switches (for example, to quickly change the brightness of the display), but I’m unlucky in the “eleven”; Use the network, volume, and battery icons to the left of the taskbar clock to open the switches.
The fact that the Taskbar cannot be hidden on the tablet is also a touch on beauty; previously it was possible to do so by dragging from the bottom of the screen, in the “elevens” this gesture does nothing.
Virtual keyboard in colors
A convenient virtual keyboard is also suitable for convenient tablet control. It has undergone several changes since Windows 10, although they are more or less visual; the layout of the keys remains the same, so you can find letters with hooks and commas unconventionally to the right of regular letters. You can color the keyboard with non-violent wallpaper, resize captions, or remove individual key borders. Also new is a new line through which you can quickly access emoji, GIF animations, special characters or clipboard history.
Working with the stylus
If you have a tablet with stylus support, you will also appreciate the new “Pen” menu to the left of the clock. This is a simple guide to applications that support interaction with the stylus, from the manufacturer there are Whiteboard and Snippet applications, but any modern or common application can be added to this list.
So what are Windows 11 on the tablet?
If you’ve read the text so far, you probably understand that I’m quite disappointed with the Windows 11 tablet environment. Although I understand Microsoft’s efforts to unify the desktop and tablet environments, it occurs to me that some good ideas have stood halfway and are looking for a way to the goal. For example, working with windows is definitely not as comfortable with finger control as working with full-screen applications, which could be used to divide the screen into two halves if necessary.
Even the touch gestures do not seem as comfortable to me as before, I would appreciate the possibility of their adjustments, both for strokes from the sides of the screen and for full-screen gestures for multiple fingers. I would also welcome a return to the option to hide the taskbar. On the contrary, I appreciate the more modern guise, the successful virtual keyboard and the new menu for touch pens.
It should be noted that Windows 11 is not in the slightest primarily a tablet system, after all, classic tablets with Windows are like saffron. These are mostly hybrid devices, in which 95 percent of users work like regular computers, and for the remaining 5 percent, it doesn’t make sense to learn a whole new way to control them. This way, the look and feel is more or less consistent, but those who have appreciated the touch control of older versions of Windows will have to learn everything from the beginning and still miss a lot of things.
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