How to enable full screen mode in Windows 11 apps
When we launch applications and games, some of them work in full screen mode in Windows 11, while others do not. Some of the latter can support full screen mode, from the configuration options or thanks to a keyboard shortcut. Most browsers allow you to set the full screen mode by pressing "F11", for example.
However, what happens if we want to activate full screen mode for an application that does not have configuration options? Or maybe it doesn't even react when F11 is pressed.
Not all programs have a custom mode. For example, Thunderbird, the open source email client, does not support it. While we can maximize the window from the button at the top right, we can't switch to full screen, we simply maximize it.
All Microsoft Store apps, even those native to Windows 11, can generally use full screen mode, although the choice might not be very obvious, at least at first, since there's no specific button to get it publicly.
Enable full screen mode in any Windows 11 application
What we have to do is simply use the keyboard shortcut “Alt + Enter” or “Windows + Shift + Enter”. They are the keyboard shortcuts that Microsoft added to the operating system long ago and are keeping in Windows 11.
For testing, we can do this with any application. For example, we open Paint 3D, we must make sure that the window is active and make a keyboard shortcut. As we can see, it automatically switches to full screen mode. If we group the keys again, we will exit full screen mode and return to normal viewing mode.
These keyboard shortcuts work in most Microsoft Store apps and Windows in general, and we can even use them in video games. Although obviously we can find some exceptions, especially Win32 programs.
To this we add that Notepad does not support the shortcut to full screen, but the calculator does. So, it is a trial and error process, and it will work in most of the applications without any kind of problem, while it will not work in others.
In addition, we can always try to use F11, especially in web browsers.