Bought a Surface 2 And Have A Couple Of Probably Simple Questions?

[AJHylton]

I've purchased the Surface 2 and even though Windows RT is annoying I must say that I'm pleased with it. The only questions I have are;
1) When I first purchased it I'm sure I could display the charms bar by swiping from any point on the right in both orientations, but after updating I am able to open the charms bar from a swipe from the right at any height when in portrait mode but in landscape it only shows when I swipe from a specific point in the top right corner which is really annoying and hard to reach. Is there a fix?

2) Also I downloaded the Google search app for ease of use and I saw that I would be able to search Google directly from the charms bar but all I get is the dropdown menu of where to search that doesn't include Google and there's no Google option lower down where Google itself claims it should be.

Is this ultimately just a problem with my charms bar that I can fix or does something else need doing? Please help because these two small things really do affect my ease of use.
Thank you

 

[Ed Boland]

First off, welcome to the site! I had a Surface 2 myself and was happy with it for the most part, given it's shortcomings. It's a fantastic device for media consumption like watching movies, playing music and browsing the web.

For your issue with the charms bar, there should be swipe gesture settings in the settings somewhere. It's been a while for me.. Can't remember exactly, but they're there. (Or were.. See below)

Have you done the latest update? There was one that gave the Surface 2 "some" Windows 10 features, like the enhanced Start menu. That came out long after I had parted ways with mine, so it may have changed things, as far as the charms bar/settings.

 

[AJHylton]

Thank you for that but unfortunately there is no option in the settings, it's all updated but that may be where it disappeared to as before I updated it I could swipe from anywhere but after updating I can no longer do it. In settings it only gives me options for corners and not the whole side but it works in portrait mode which is annoying.

Is there a way to roll it back to before the update maybe?

 

[Ed Boland]

Thank you for that but unfortunately there is no option in the settings, it's all updated but that may be where it disappeared to as before I updated it I could swipe from anywhere but after updating I can no longer do it. In settings it only gives me options for corners and not the whole side but it works in portrait mode which is annoying.

Is there a way to roll it back to before the update maybe?

You could do a factory reset on it I suppose.

 

[SteelSteve]

Look for the screen recalibration option and perform that. I had the same problem once or twice since I've owned it and just had to recalibrate the touch screen to get it to start working again.