Can not go to search on touch screen via on-screen keyboard in Metro UI

Question

I have Win8 installed on my Acer Iconia W500 tablet. First off all great performance for system and UI, much faster then in win7 and that was not slow.

 

My problem is when you are in metro UI there is no way to get the keyboard up to start a search. As I also can not get the bottom left corner menu to open on touch screen (seems to only work via mouse). That needs to be fixed. I have two options left and one is not always working.

I try to slide out the right hand side menu but 2 times out of 3 I endup scrolling the UI app menu. If I manage to get it out I have to click search and then type. Second option is to go to desktop which in tablet I would like to avoid. We need a shortcut to keyboard either as an tile on menu or as gesture.

Is there a gesture or a way to add keyboard shortcut to UI menu?

At the moment if you have normal keyboard you can start typing the name of app you are looking for and it will auto go to search which is great.

I also have HD7 with WP7 mango on it (lets skip the issues there). The Win8 UI is to look and feel like WP7 as such I try to use the same shortcuts and buttons as there and they do not work or do not do the same function which is just odd.

For example pressing start gets you to home screen on both, pressing and holding start on WP7 starts voice control on Win8 should do the same but does nothing.

Back button on WP7 goes back to previous app and in mango holding it brings up a basic task switcher. Backspace button should do the same in Win8 and that button should then be implemented as one of hardware buttons on tablets.

Answer 1

Thanks for you feed back Riscik. Microsoft is monitoring these forums for issues and concerns.  This will be reported up so that the right people are made aware of your concern. 

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Greg - Microsoft Support Engineer

Answer 2

Thanks for your feedback as you try out our developer preview. If you have a regular keyboard you can use the keyboard shortcut (WIN key + Q) to open the search pane in any app. This shortcut will also work in the desktop, mosh app or start screen.

Swiping the right edge of the screen and selecting the search charm is the primary way to initiate search in the Start screen via touch. You can tap in the search box to bring up the on screen keyboard.