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On the Samsung Galaxy Note, you can use the S Pen to achieve the equivalent of a mouse hover, even though its on a touch screen device. Does the Surface (or any of the new touch screen windows 8 all-in-ones) have similar capabilities?

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3 Answers 3

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A "long" click seems to work on my Surface - at least on websites.

I place my finger where I want to hover (for example my name at the top of the screen) and hold it there for a couple of seconds. The flyout menu will then appear (along with a another popup as well).

I believe this is really supposed to simulate a "right click", but seems to work for some things - it doesn't let me up vote comments for example.

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This is a pretty bad solution on Microsoft's part. I experienced this today when testing our web application on both iPad's and Windows 8 tablets. iPad handles this every elegantly, but Windows - not so much. –  Matt Rockwell Nov 30 '12 at 18:18
I guess they thought most would be sold with the Type/Touch covers which come with a track pad :( But yes, it does seem a bit flaky - I guess the iPad handles it "better" because Mac's traditionally haven't had a "right mouse button" option - and so their users wouldn't miss a feature they don't usually have on their single button track pads and mice? –  Zhaph - Ben Duguid Nov 30 '12 at 19:19

A hover action is simulated by a long press (tap-and-hold). However, that doesn't seem to work for all of my apps.

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Digitizer pen input has long been supported in Windows. These easily support hovering the cursor. Without a pen, though, the best you have is either use a long press or a touchpad or mouse accessory (like the keyboard cover for the Surface).

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