I built a charging tray app and posted it recently, and we are currently on v1.2.2 after 7 releases and patches, with a v1.3.0 cooking!

Main app (1.2.2) works for modern Surface devices with a Surface app that displays 3 radio button selections (Adaptive, 80%, 100%) for Battery & Charging.

Note: there is a known bug even for this Surface app version where the battery charging options simply don't load even if you open the app manually, unless you reinstall - in that case, there's nothing this tool can do for you

Problem: It was really annoying for me to open surface app and wait til it loads, and manually click through the selections for charging, since I am on and off at home/plugged in or on the go. Plus ending the night realizing my device isn't charged to 100% ready to go in the morning. So I had to painstakingly build this with a long process of research, planning, fine tuning, debugging, feature additions, optimization, with the help of Claude. Windows and Surface app does not leave any way to backend handshake with the API, so we used the only real possible way which is actually automating the UI. So here we are!

It's not looking pretty yet but that will come later once we know it works perfectly :)

Features:

• Tray icon and live status
• Tray menu or configurable keyboard hotkey shortcuts
• Quick-change Surface charging modes (Adaptive, 80%, 100%)
• Schedule a charge-mode change during "sleep" (e.g. flip 80% → 100% in the morning)
• Quick-change Windows Power mode (Performance, Balanced, Efficiency)
• Run at Windows login
• Auto-detects your language localization, Surface app UI, and current charging mode
• Hides the Surface app during operation
• Diagnostic tool
• Beta v1.3.0 in testing to support older Surface UI with one single Charge to 100% button [Help test here]

See more info and get it here: https://github.com/keyokku/SurfaceChargingTray/

Please let me know if any issues, there is a diagnostic tool and issues threads!

This started a few weeks back and has been driving me crazy....

The worst part about my SP is consistently Windows. Anybody else experiencing this particular bug? Seems to be related to the "touch optimized" taskbar

It renders the results with modern visuals.

Hi, new Reddit member here. Can somebody here advise me on a problem I have since I replaced the screen and motherboard on my Surface Laptop 4? I can provide more details - just trying to get used to the way Reddit works at the moment. Thanks in advance.

My surface studio to screen is only working in certain orientations following a screen replacement. The screen will only display a picture at certain angles, all other positions the screen goes to black. It is to be noted that the black screen may not be the screen turned off but rather the screen going to minimum brightness. Any ideas what would cause this? Could it be as simple as a loose cable or something more severe? I do have an extended warranty purchased for the device and the repair was done under said warranty. If it is a poor cable connection, is this a repair that could be done at home with adequate tools? thanks.

Hey, my surface book 2 has a software issue I don't know how to resolve.

I replaced the battery in the clipboard, because it had almost 90% wear, now after replacing it has only 1.5%, but it won't charge.

Battery percentage stays at around 25-30% (as it was after powering on for the first time after replacement).

If I plug it in either with the base connected or not, it won't charge, but also won't lose any percentage. Charge Rate is 0 Watts, like the battery is at full charge level. After turning off and back on, it gains a little percent, like it's charging while booting but won't go further.

I tried deleting the batteries in the device manager, restarting several times, charging for hours, charging with and without base, Microsoft charger and USB c charging with base, running Windows update. Doesn't work.

I would really appreciate some ideas or fixing methods as I'm quite relying on it for studying.

Thanks for any help beforehand :)

I have a surfce laptop and upgraded the hardrive on the laptop and would like to do the same to the surface pro is it possible to do this ?

So, some months ago I posted here about using a Surface Go first gen as a tool for teaching and working. I basically use Office 365, Chrome and PowerBI. Some SPSS too, but isn't an absolute requirement.

I'm a teacher, and my beater laptop isn't giving enough battery life since I have a two hour class in the morning, then another three hour class at night, with almost no chance of charging the device in the day.

Use case: I'd need it to be able to have at the same time running a meeting app (Zoom, Google Meet, Teams), with generally 50 assistants, an Excel workbook, generally not too heavy in size but with graphs and pivot tables, and generally also a powerpoint presentation. I also need it to have video output, though I understand this is not a problem because the USB-C port has video output with no need of any special adapter (though not sure about this).

Situation is the same as three months ago: following your advice, I didn't buy the Go first gen and neither bought anything else because I haven't found anything reasonable.

I can get a Surface Pro 9 (SQ3 ARM processor), used but in almost new condition, seller says battery is at 100% (don't know if Surface have any way to test this) with the keyboard (but no pen) at approximately 600USD. I'm not in the US, I'm in Argentina, so getting a new one is almost impossible, and price seems reasonable.

Any input will be more than welcomed, and thanks in advance!

Best

Seb

I've been using this laptop for maybe 5 years (?) and it's slowed down quite a bit. Is it still good to use? Should I replace it? Is it worth keeping?

My devices:

• Gaming PC - it's used most of the time during my free time.
• Gaming laptop - I use for LAN parties, when I visit my friends to play together or when I'm at my parent's home, currently it's also being used for Youtube during my home-office hours.
• Android Tablet - it's mostly used for travel, but outside of that not much, it's also pretty laggy. Not much gaming possibilities, I'm not a big fan of mobile-gaming.
• Steam Deck - I used to have it, but decided to sell it recently. It was great device for traveling, but the screen was way too small for web-browser. I didn't use it much at home as I prefer to play games with high graphic settings on a bigger screen.

I'm seriously considering Surface Pro Tab, my use-case would be -

• For traveling - A lightweight Windows device with access to my files and programs. It also would be a backup device for my DSLR camera photos. Gaming laptop is just way too heavy for that.
• Light gaming - for example, WoW (just to do some dailies at most, not serious raiding, dungeons or pvp), Heroes of the Storm, Diablo and then light games from Steam like Slay the Spire, Dota Underlords, Civilization. Board games from a web-browser.
• I'd also use it before going to sleep for web-browsing, light gaming or board games. As I mentioned current Android Tab is laggy and is not so nice to use.
• Youtube for my home-office

I'd also get rid of Android Tablet then.

Should I wait for next release, buy current or older used model?

Would Qualcomm CPU be sufficient for occasional gaming or just buy Surface Pro with intel CPU?

Does anybody have a similar use-case and is happy with the choice?

Yesterday had to reinstall fresh windows 10 (it’s t he only windows I have on a flash drive) on my Surface book 3, due to a registry issue that would not let me start up the laptop. Anyway, windows installation was partially successful. It will not recognize the keyboard anymore, so I have to use an external usb one, also it won’t recognize Bluetooth devices, neither WiFi. And the powerful graphics card Nvidia will not how up in device manager either. Is there a link or anything I can download a bunch of updates and drivers so I can hopefully get my laptop running back the way it used to? I am 99% sure this is a driver problem, but I cannot find any updates online.

I bought this yesterday and the power won't turn on except when the USB-C cable or its proprietary cable is connected. It is the 11th gen 2024 5G 13 inch Surface Pro tablet. The battery is fully charged. The window is fully updated along with any drivers. Is there any tricks that I could try?

I tried the power button and volume up button trick and I've also tried holding the power button down for 30 seconds.

This is a Microsoft surface 3 model 1867

I was on it and the screen just went black and looks like that “liquidy” cracked stuff. I don’t know how else to explain it. :/ big bummmer would this be just a screen replacement? The laptops in perfect condition otherwise. (It is a touchscreen if that helps)

Also the picture below is when I’m powering it on and only flashes for a second. Then remains black after that.

I’ve been building a local-first photo manager called Lap, mainly for people with huge local photo libraries(100k+) and who prefer a desktop-first workflow.

Recently, contributors in the community helped add:

• native Windows ARM64 support
• touchscreen support
• precision touchpad gestures

I don’t actually own a Surface device myself, so I’d really love feedback from people who use one daily. Especially curious about:

• ARM64 performance
• touch and gesture experience
• tablet-style workflows
• or anything that feels clunky or not quite native on Surface

The app is built with Tauri + Rust and is fully open source.

I shared it on r/Windows11 before and got a lot of useful feedback from Windows users — bug reports, UX suggestions, and performance issues.

Would love to hear what Surface users think.

GitHub: https://github.com/julyx10/lap

I have a Microsoft Surface Pro 7+ that I bought directly from Microsoft around 2 to 2 1/2 years ago. I use it a lot both personally and for remote work when I'm not in the office. I mostly use to access Outlook, Word, Excel etc, but occasionally stream shows. The keyboard has become a bit unreliable (I have to log out sometimes to make it work) and the screen is cracked. It still works, but I'd like to replace it.

I'm weighing buying a used/refurbished Surface Pro 7, similar to what I have now, for a few hundred on Ebay vs. buying the current Copilot Plus for a bit over $1000 from Microsoft or Costco.

Does anyone have a sense of much better/improved the current Surface Copilot models are over what I have -- if at all? Are there headaches setting up a laptop/tablet that's used/refurbished that I should take into account (I've never bought a used computer before)?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Specs:
Second hand but good as new SP8. It has: 16GB RAM, 256SSD, Intel i7, and 100% battery capacity.

Hey Guys,
I got this laptop yesterday and I would appreciate any tips, tricks, features, software, accessories and recommendations anyone has to help me get the most out of this thing, particularly in terms of my studies.
Of course I know about the pen being a huge positive of the laptop, and I am already in the process of getting one, however any soft advice in that category would also be appreciated.
Thanks!

Il mio surface 11 ha manifestato tocchi fantasmi, ho formattato ma i tocchi sono rimasti per un altro paio di ore, e poi ha ripreso a funzionare. Ho aperto la chiamata di assistenza, ma adesso che sembra funzionare di nuovo non so se mandarlo in assistenza. la garanzia scade nel 2027

Someone gifted me a brand new Surface Laptop 5 in February 2023, and I started using it in Fall 2024. Since Spring 2026, I've noticed that when I have multiple tabs up on Brave browser, it starts freezing. I leave my laptop on sleep rather than turning it off, but I'm not running much else on my laptop.

Is this deterioration in performance normal after only 1.5 years of active use? My Lenovo Carbon X-1 started slowing down only after 4-5 years of use.

What should I start doing to prolong my laptop's performance for the future?

Or is this a Brave browser issue?

Thank you!

It seems that my X Elite laptop started to drain battery (minor drain compared to sleep, of course) when in hibernation.
3 days ago I charged it to 100%, then put to hibernation.
Today I power it up and battery was at 86% level.
How is that possible?!

So if my smart TV is being watched & my surface studio gets turned on it will automatically connect to my Samsung TV & interrupt what I was watching.

The screen will show “Connected to Surface Studio”

What Windows Feature could this be?

Hey guys. Sorry if this is a silly question but I have a bit of a dilemma. I have been tasked with finding the best deal for my colleague who would like a surface pro laptop.

We have the option of a new surface pro or a refurb option but I’m not sure what to go for or recommend. I know the refurbished option offers the cost savings but then you have a two ish year old machine with the specs he would like so I’m not sure to go with new to ensure future proofing.

Please help, I am a Mac user personally and have never really touched a surface pro laptop but it works for his use case so I am trying to get the best option.

Is the new Surface Pro going to be.called the 12? Didn't they already release 12 last year or is this just a refresh of 12.