How do I disable split screen for opening links?

Anonymous
2013-10-21T19:00:24+00:00

I am running Win 8.1 on a TABLET.  I have about 9 inches of screen real estate to work with.

If I click a link in, say, the Mail app, it will launch IE in 50/50 mode with the existing mail app (which then rearranges itself to only show the single message I was looking at).

This is not at all helpful.  This gives me a four inch web browser, which isn't big enough to see clearly at all.  The controls are all too close together to operate by touch, etc.  I am then forced to manually drag to expand the IE window to full screen.  Unfortunately, the control to do this is also rather small, and I usually miss the first two times.  It typically takes me about 10-15 seconds between clicking a link in email and being able to read the corresponding web page.

Windows 8 handled this correctly.  I would like to revert to the behavior of always opening apps in full screen mode.  How can I accomplish this?

I know it should be possible.  If I hold the tablet in portrait mode, the annoying split window thing does not happen.  (It's not natural for me to hold it this way all the time.)

Is there a registry setting or something for "Always open new apps in full screen mode"?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Accessibility

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-06-03T21:47:35+00:00

    Same problem here, this is annoying and a hassle on an 8 inch tablet.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-01-09T19:36:55+00:00

    I would like to disable split screen especially in tablet mode.  There is no circumstance on my Windows 10 tablet that I would want split screen.

    Odd thing is I've noticed sometimes when I touch a link in the Mail app, it opens split screen, then automatically switches to full screen right away.  Sometimes it just stays split screen.  I can't really find a pattern to it.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-01-09T19:16:31+00:00

    It's 2016. Still an annoying issue. Please make it optional when splitting windows. At least, when it is not in the tablet mode, auto show the keyboard when focus on an input box when there is no keyboard attached.

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-12-11T17:57:33+00:00

    One year later, on Windows 10 and it is still a problem.

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  5. Anonymous
    2014-11-12T16:22:56+00:00

    I have the same problem on my Dell Venue 8 pro. I hate it when it splits the screen when I click on an email link. The screen is small enough that this arrangement is useless and I always have to find the divider and swipe to make the browser take the whole screen. In Windows 8.0 at least it would always open in full screen mode.

    This is one of the many reasons people hate Windows 8.1. If there was an option to revert to the old behavior I would be OK with that. Please don't assume that all users want split screen view all the time.

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