How do you turn off Fullscreen mode in Windows 8?

are you serious that someone actually thinks locking my display in full screen is a feature?

It's a wonderful feature.   I use it all the time.   However, I use it without Auto-Hide.   E.g. while in Fullscreen mode in IE Desktop you can press Alt-Space,H to toggle the Fullscreen window's Auto-Hide option off.

Then instead of being blocked in by having a window in its Maximized state or even worse by having its normal mode window maximally sized, I can just press F11 to toggle it into a smaller normal mode window and do whatever I need to do with other windows while seeing some of that one.

now I have to have that PDF doc full screen, which means I simply cannot do what I want?

Which app has made that happen?   If you mean you are seeing the Modern UI Fullscreen (MUF) Reader app that could mean you should be installing a different program to read .pdf files, such as Adobe's Acrobat Reader or Foxit and let it be the default program for .pdf files.

BTW I have never seen this small message window that is being referred to.   Like others I would wonder if it is a feature of a particular site or app.   E.g. if it is something that is being sensed by a website being viewed in MUF IE, thinking only of how IE Desktop users would see it, then you could use the right-click Tools button to open the same page in an IE Desktop window, where you could use F11 if necessary.

FYI

Robert Aldwinckle

Are you kidding me.  This is the EXPECTED interface.  So if you have two screens and multitask, you are screwed?  Or better yet, if you run a mac and have windows in parallels, it covers your entire screen every time you open a program?

Who that that is a good idea.  Is that a trade in that allows me to return Windows 8 the day I bought it and exchange it for 7?

You need to pass the word on to the powers that be that this was a REALLY DUMB idea. When I think of modern interface I think of a compliments above and beyond the previous versions. To cripple a widely used concept like being able to run apps in different windows simultaneously is a HUGE design dabacle.   I feel this specific design decision was made with complete disregard for end users.

are you serious that someone actually thinks locking my display in full screen is a feature?

It's a wonderful feature.   I use it all the time.   However, I use it without Auto-Hide.   E.g. while in Fullscreen mode in IE Desktop you can press Alt-Space,H to toggle the Fullscreen window's Auto-Hide option off.

 

Then instead of being blocked in by having a window in its Maximized state or even worse by having its normal mode window maximally sized, I can just press F11 to toggle it into a smaller normal mode window and do whatever I need to do with other windows while seeing some of that one.

 

 

now I have to have that PDF doc full screen, which means I simply cannot do what I want?

Which app has made that happen?   If you mean you are seeing the Modern UI Fullscreen (MUF) Reader app that could mean you should be installing a different program to read .pdf files, such as Adobe's Acrobat Reader or Foxit and let it be the default program for .pdf files.

 

 

BTW I have never seen this small message window that is being referred to.   Like others I would wonder if it is a feature of a particular site or app.   E.g. if it is something that is being sensed by a website being viewed in MUF IE, thinking only of how IE Desktop users would see it, then you could use the right-click Tools button to open the same page in an IE Desktop window, where you could use F11 if necessary.

 

 

FYI

 

Robert Aldwinckle

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Full Screen is not a feature one needs on a 30 inch LCD... it really really sucks when your trying to work...  it allows NO control of our MULTITASKING environment if we can't re-size what WE need...  So they really really need to fix this PROBLEM... I'm running a i7 hex core processor with 16GB of Ram not some stupid tablet.

it allows NO control of our MULTITASKING environment if we can't re-size what WE need... 

If you use it AND leave your window in normal mode at a useful size you can do that simply by pressing F11.