Gesture and Tablet mode issues (or advice)

[osirhc]

I have been given a Surface Pro 3 running Windows 10 from my employer. I have been using it now for about a month and so far I have enjoyed using it. I have a few issues I can't seem to find any information on, and some of these issues I see as serious oversights on Microsofts end (unless my particular SP3 is simply malfunctioning for whatever reason).

Today while in Google Chrome I attempted to select the minimize icon while Chrome was in full mode (not full screen mode, but not windowed). The on screen keyboard popped up and I couldn't figure out how that happened. This got me thinking I inadvertently activated a touchscreen gesture to bring up the on screen keyboard, but unfortunately I could not replicate this happening. Is there a touchscreen gesture in Windows 10 to bring up the on screen keyboard? This would be incredibly helpful for many reasons, one of which is...

Tablet mode sucks. I mean I really don't understand why anyone would use Tablet mode as it seems basically useless. By default, not when in tablet mode, there is the on screen keyboard icon in the icon try (next to the time in the lower right corner). This is great, but when you enable tablet mode this icon disappears! This seems like a major oversight on Microsoft's end because how is Tablet mode supposed to be optimized for touch use when it hides the icon to bring up the on screen keyboard? The reason this is so irritating is because, unlike an Android or mobile device, touching a text field doesn't automatically bring up the onscreen keyboard. I cannot figure out why Microsoft would configure these features this way. As such, I never use Tablet mode because it's immensely more useful using the SP3 in "desktop mode" even without the keyboard attached since I can easily tap the on screen keyboard in the icon tray. Is this something unique to my SP3, some sort of bug, or is this just how Tablet mode works in Windows 10?

My device is fully updated to the latest non beta software through Windows Updates. For reference my specs are as follows:
Surface Pro 3, 256GB SSD, 8GBs RAM, Intel Core i7-4650U, Windows 10 Enterprise version 1511 build 10586.164

 

[hughlle]

Issue one, never encountered it. Possibly a chrome issue, not Microsoft issue (google are responsible for chrome call I g up the OSK, not Microsoft afaik.

As to tablet mode. Right click on the task bar. You'll find some useful options

 

[bluegrass]

I'll be honest, I'm not sure what you mean by "full mode". I assume you mean not full screen mode, where you can size the window to whatever size you want. I used Chrome in this mode and didn't have a problem minimizing Chrome.

As to the screen keyboard in tablet mode, you're correct, it's not on the task bar or task tray, but you can right click on the task tray and put the keyboard icon on there if you want. I know one thing, you don't want the keyboard to come flying on your screen everytime you burp.

By the way. welcome to the party, I mean the forum. You have one savvy employer, fitting you up with a Surface. So far where I work, only the road warriors and the chiefs get to have a Surface Pro.