How to Lock the Screen Orientation on a Microsoft Surface Tablet?
One of my biggest gripes with the Surface is its neurotic tendency to change screen orientation with just the smallest shift in how I hold it. It seems like the Surface is over-eager to not have the problem of older iPhones/iPads when iOS would be slow to recognize a switch in screen orientation. No, the [...]
Posted on November 21, 2012 by Bobby Gill+ in How-to Guides, Windows 8
One of my biggest gripes with the Surface is its neurotic tendency to change screen orientation with just the smallest shift in how I hold it. It seems like the Surface is over-eager to not have the problem of older iPhones/iPads when iOS would be slow to recognize a switch in screen orientation.
No, the Surface definitely doesn’t have that problem. In fact, the Surface swings the pendulum right on over to the other side and is equally annoying with its constant shifts in screen orientation!
Luckily, there is an easy way for us to lock the screen orientation on the Surface tablet so that it stays fixed in one screen orientation (landscape or portrait)
1.) Bring up the charms menu by either swiping from the right hand side of the screen or pressing the Windows + C keys. (Seriously, what the hell is a ‘charm’?!)
2.) Press the ‘Settings’ charm (or button as we call it in the West)
3.) Press the ‘Screen’ button
4.) Tap the rectangle at the stop of the Brightness slider. When the orientation is locked you will see a tiny pad lock in the lower right corner.
And that’s it! Now your Surface is locked in the current screen orientation. Go ahead, turn that baby around on its head, the screen will NOT switch layouts! Praise the lord!
Bobby Gill is Editor-in-Chief of IdeaToAppster.com, author of "Appsters: A Beginner's Guide to App Entrepreneurship" and the founder of Blue Label Labs, a mobile development lab based in New York and Seattle. In addition to building its own apps, Blue Label Labs provides design and engineering services to mobile app clients across the world. Prior to starting Blue Label Labs, Bobby spent 4 years at Microsoft as a Program Manager within the Forefront Identity Manager (FIM) product group. During this time, Bobby served as an engineering and architectural lead for the FIM server specializing in database and web service design. After Microsoft, Bobby worked as a Summer Associate at McKinsey & Co. where he was part of a service operations enhancement program within the high-tech industry. Bobby holds a Bachelor of Mathematics specializing in Computer Science from the University of Waterloo and a Masters in Business Administration from Columbia Business School.
