You are not opening the correct IE in metro. If you open the correct one from metro, it will bring up a touch friendly browser....address bar is at the bottom, and the back and forward buttons as well. You touch in the address bar and then you get your recent and favorite buttons...big squares that you scroll left and right on.
Problem with browsers on Surface Pro
- Thread starter Arizona Willie
- Start date
You are not opening the correct IE in metro. If you open the correct one from metro, it will bring up a touch friendly browser....address bar is at the bottom, and the back and forward buttons as well. You touch in the address bar and then you get your recent and favorite buttons...big squares that you scroll left and right on.
J515OP
Super Moderator
This is actually correct. There is nothing preventing desktop apps from being touch friendly (look at the changes to Office as an example) but the fact is most companies making apps for the desktop (usually legacy stuff) are far behind the touch curve. Chrome and Firefox are two examples. MS could have made the desktop browser more touch friendly but they off an entirely touch oriented browser (Modern IE) instead. Personally I prefer the desktop browser and don't consider its interface to be touch prohibitive. It isn't as touch friendly as Modern IE but like Arnold said if you want to use desktop IE then you have to accept it for what it is and what it isn't.
Feel free to weigh in here: http://www.surfaceforums.net/forum/...-discussion/3189-modern-ie-vs-desktop-ie.html
JP
OP
Arizona Willie
Active Member
Bosamar: yes, I've seen and used the Metro IE but I only ( in the past anyway ) use IE for places where Chrome or Firefox don't work correctly. Some websites are designed for IE on purpose so that other browsers don't work right.
In order to use the Metro IE I would have to make IE my default browser, which I think is another Microsoft attempt to force people to use IE.
Unfortunately, it seems that only IE works correctly on the Surface tablet. Things like squeezing two fingers to contract something on screen or even swiping do not work in my Chrome and in Firefox it seems to work ( usually ) but there is a very long delay before anything happens and I always think it isn't going to work at all.
Really surprised that Chrome hasn't made their browser better ... but it is the worst of the lot. Worked great on my Xoom tablet, but of course, that is Android not Windows. But it's disappointing that they haven't done a better job. And I don't like being FORCED to make IE my default in order to use the Metro 64 bit interface.
In order to use the Metro IE I would have to make IE my default browser, which I think is another Microsoft attempt to force people to use IE.
Unfortunately, it seems that only IE works correctly on the Surface tablet. Things like squeezing two fingers to contract something on screen or even swiping do not work in my Chrome and in Firefox it seems to work ( usually ) but there is a very long delay before anything happens and I always think it isn't going to work at all.
Really surprised that Chrome hasn't made their browser better ... but it is the worst of the lot. Worked great on my Xoom tablet, but of course, that is Android not Windows. But it's disappointing that they haven't done a better job. And I don't like being FORCED to make IE my default in order to use the Metro 64 bit interface.
malberttoo
Well-Known Member
EDIT: I see now you could be talking about the Desktop IE tile, so my bad.
I'm pretty sure this is incorrect. If you change your browser default to something besides IE, the tile in Metro actually changes to the old-school IE logo, and not the Metro IE logo.
I had my browser set to Chrome by default, and couldn't bring up Metro IE, no matter what I did. The logo on the IE tile in Metro had changed as well. It wasn't until I set IE back to the default browser, that I was able to open Metro IE.
Here's some reference...
[FIX] Internet Explorer Metro Tile Missing from Windows 8 Start Screen or Metro IE Doesn?t Start - Tweaking with Vishal
Last edited:
OP
Arizona Willie
Active Member
malberttoo: that is correct .... Microsoft ... in their ultimate wisdom have decided to FORCE people to make IE their default browser if they wish to use the Metro IE version.
This happened to me because I had installed Chrome and set it to be the default browser. When that happens, IE won't open in Metro UI anymore.
Which browser(s) do you use on your pro?
Howdy, everyone.
I have been playing around with a few different browsers on my pro and was curious which ones you guys use and why you prefer them over others. So far it seems that IE plays the nicest with the scaling, etc. I really want to like chrome on my pro, but it just seems off especially when I try to touch.
Your thoughts, ideas, and opinions?
Howdy, everyone.
I have been playing around with a few different browsers on my pro and was curious which ones you guys use and why you prefer them over others. So far it seems that IE plays the nicest with the scaling, etc. I really want to like chrome on my pro, but it just seems off especially when I try to touch.
Your thoughts, ideas, and opinions?
J515OP
Super Moderator
Chrome is not touch optimized and Google seems to be in no hurry to make it that way. For better or worse IE seems to be the best browser for on the Surface right now.
This happens if you set another browser other than IE as your default. Change the default back to IE and open it on Metro UI. It opens as it is supposed to.
Talldog
Member
I'd like a better Metro browser. Besides IE, I've tried Chrome, Firefox and UC BrowserHD. I'd like to use Chrome, but it doesn't handle scaling well. After a lot of experimenting, I've got my SP back at the default resolution and scaling (1920x1080 @ 150%)and while you can zoom Chrome, it only applies to the window. The tab and favorites bars are so small that they're close to unusable, especially since there do appear to be some issues with touch. Firefox doesn't seem to be ready for primetime yet and I uninstalled it almost as soon as I installed it. UC seems to have some promise, although it's pretty basic. I wish I could easily import my bookmarks from IE, but all it has is a sync bookmarks function which I assume works with UC on other devices. Don't know for sure because you have to set up an account in order to use it, and I'd rather not do that. I'd be OK with IE if it wasn't for favorites. A single line of dozens of icons in no particular order isn't cutting it. For now I'll be playing more with UC.
machistmo
Active Member
On my Dell S2340T Touch Screen, the desktop IE is touch friendly.
