The much enhanced support for portrait mode that Microsoft has built specifically for smaller tablets is one of the most focal new features of Windows 8.1, but some users have found and reported an issue when launching apps in this mode.
According to some post on Microsoft’s support forums, Metro apps become unusable in portrait screen mode, both third party apps and those developed by the technology giant itself.
One user explained the issue in detail:
“I am running a monitor in portrait mode at 1024×1280 and it is almost unusable. Everything is combined into a single column centered and occupying about a third of the screen. I assume that it assumes that I am on a mobile device and that I don’t like the other two-thirds of my screen, but I really do want it to use the whole screen. Maybe unusable is an exaggeration, but it’s still pretty broken.”
Microsoft has specifically designed Windows 8.1 to be used in portrait mode on smaller tablets. This display mode not only optimizes the Starts screen, but also several other system settings so that they are shown correctly on tablets and devices with smaller screen sizes.
The technology titan expects a new wave of these smaller devices to hit the store shelves in the next couple of months, by the time the new operating system goes live.
Expect this little bug to be addressed before the operating system hits RTM status in August.
