alee2051

Join Date 04/2025

(v2.52.3]) buggy experience with tablet when using Win 11 setting '[optimise taskbar for touch tablets]'

Following tested on Start 11 2.52.3 (appeared to apply to 2.52.1), Win 11 23H2

When:

using a touch device in tablet mode (Surface Pro in my case)
and the Windows 11 option 'Optimise taskbar for touch interactions when this device is used as a tabled'
and the device is in tablet mode (keyboard not atached)

Then you get a number of problematic behaviours that are 'buggy' in experience.

'Top' alignment of taskbar which should work without enhancement, is not honoured, and the taskbar remains at bottom.
Side alignment is honoured, however whenever any window is open, the Start button disappears and so do many system tray icons, including 'critical' icons like touch-screen-keyboard.
See pictured at bottom.

The nearest work around is to disable the above Win 11 setting.

However, the net experience with tablets 'in tablet mode' is now worse for Start 11. The above just makes it 'workable'

At present, the simplest improvement would be for Start 11 to detect tablet mode, and to disable all taskbar features (and restart explorer), and then re-enable (and restart explorer) when it detects tablet mode is no longer being used.

Preferred improvements (for the admittedly small tablet market)

For Start 11 to disable the Win 11 optimise setting and take over tablet optimisations. Key optimisations are
- Make touchscreen keyboard/trackpad accessible via system tray
- Turn taskbar into a hidden 'pop-up on touch' taskbar
Add taskbar positioning option 'When in tablet mode:'
- Option to anchor task bar to short or long side, responding to rotation accordingly
  - Top vs bottom when applicable? & Left vs Right when applicable?

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Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. I don't have a touch tablet device to test this. But, have you try changing this setting and see if the performance improve?

Thank you,
Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.

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Hi Basj,

Thank you for responding.

No, neither 'automatic' nor 'force' helps.

This is a request, not an expectation, but I would ask that if considerable effort is put into documenting a potential issue, and that if the return test ought to be quick to do on Stardock's side that they please do the testing there. Otherwise, please explain that "no one anywhere in Stardock dev, or support, has a tablet to test on. Could you please test following for us" , or "I have tried X Y Z and it work for me, I cannot reproduce your problem, have you also tried X,Y,Z please".
I'm pretty sure you won't have been furnished with a tablet Basj, and I'll bet dev will go 'it's not one of my sprints. maybe next week, maybe next week, maybe next...' . That is my experience anyway, and it can't be helped to be fair, or everything gets started and nothing gets finished, you have to choose where to draw a line eventually. Dev seem to be rolling out the improvements like machines. Can't ask more.
Please can Stardock get basj a surface tablet and keyboard so they can head these off almost as a triage. I trust they already have multi monitor.
Sooner the better. Import issues and all...
Assuming this feedback is helpful, I probably won't continue if I'm just doing QA for free.

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I am sorry to make you feel that way, no, we do not wish to force you to do these simple test. But, it would help us moving forward to identify the issue. Do know each system has its own unique software/drivers running in the background that could causing the issue. If not, we will have lot more reports of same issue from everyone else using Start11 on Surface Pro out there. That is why, we though you would do some simple test to help identify the issue. Moving forward, I have forward your problem/question to Stardock Support Team for their assistance. Please keep an eye on this thread for any updates. We appreciate your feedback and patience.

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

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Although, you're community Basj, I also get the impression you are support role effectively. It's a personal gripe, I'm tired of support departments not getting getting adequate 'support' in my personal experience, and I'm projecting. I just see it everywhere.

They should get you a surface tablet basj!

Your very productive as far as I can see. I'm pretty sure you'd tick it off in in 3 minutes, either back to me confirmed, or on to support as improvement I suspect (not a bug).

Quoting basj,

reply 3

... it would help us moving forward to identify the issue. Do know each system has its own unique software/drivers running in the background that could causing the issue. If not, we will have lot more reports of same issue from everyone else using Start11 on Surface Pro out there.

...

I'm not upset but I have to be practical with my own free time.

Stardock are great. (Although, sadly I don't think fences and groupy are going to work out for me personally in terms of cost return. Just not enough features are critical to me given my personal disposable income) Shame. I'd have been all in on the old Object desktop sub/licensing model having seen fences and groupy + start 11, but you now disable the version I have installed if I don't keep the sub up. My interest in fences was misunderstanding of perm license price point. And Groupy is great, but even less critical than fences for me personally.

Are you saying that:

Stardock confirm, they have tested my listed combination of configuration options in OP, with (some) latest patched Windows 11 FR, on a tablet, switched to tablet mode in real world fashion, and the issue is 'confirmed' unreproducible by Stardock?

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I used Surface Pro 7 (i5, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD + 512GB SDXC) for the main device and Surface Pro 5 for backup. I installed Start11 for the menu system. However, in tablet mode, Start11 sometimes became a nuisance.

Then I switched to the Surface Laptop 5 (i7, 16GB, 1TB). Everything is okay now. 🙂

I agree. The Start11 developers should get a Surface tablet to test. 😅

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Thank you for the feedback.

Just to clarify: we do have Surface devices and similar hardware for testing. Like many development teams, we rely on moderators and early reports to help triage issues before escalating them internally — it’s a very common and practical workflow, not a neglect of support.

Regarding concerns about responsiveness: the changelogs clearly show that Start11 development is heavily driven by user feedback, and issues that can be reproduced are consistently addressed. We take support seriously, but it's important to have an organized process to manage the volume and complexity of feedback we receive.

You can review the ongoing updates and fixes here:
https://support.stardock.com/space/SHC/1342963713/Start11+Changelogs

That said, we will work to reproduce what you are seeing and provide the results here.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

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The bit about getting basj a surface tablet was partly tongue in cheek, and part my own baggage about being an under equipped support engineer myself.
How about, getting basj a raise instead?Or another raise?
(I am in no way affiliated with basj)
I do think (from personal experience in support) that a distinction needs to be made between those tickets where a lot of detail has been put in into the description. (Do I have enough to test with? Yes -> Is the cost for me to test low? (5-10 mins) Yes. (If I've been furnished with adequate resources at the triage level) -> now test in-house at triage , otherwise start giving user some options to try in mean time.)
Stardock, forum support is great though. As is Dev. I have noticed how both fixes and even improvements are acted on really quickly. You have raised the bar for my expectation of dev and support in other walks of life. (Although I don't hold out much hope outside of stardock. The Microsoft feedback hub requesting vertical taskbars is just astonishing. I'm only thankful my PC does 'not' meet copilot+ requirements. Just a shame my older TMP 2.0 surface tablet doesn't even meet Win 11 requirement.)

(Please reconsider a permanent license option for Object desktop. I am surprised that you can't differentiate value for business via full support, where business is only eligible for sub/software-assurance model. With a close eye on making sure that forums do not offer the same level of support via the back door. Sub doesn't work for domestic. Not for me anyway.)

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