Websites Display Fine on Apple iPad But Not On Windows RT Device?

You can make IE tell a website to display on your Windows RT device the same way it displays on your Apple iPad. Here's how.

John Savill

January 11, 2013

1 Min Read
Websites Display Fine on Apple iPad But Not On Windows RT Device?

Q: Why do some websites render fine on my Apple iPad but not on my Windows RT device?

A: Some websites display fine on an Apple iPad and not a Windows RT device because most likely the website has some code to identify an iOS device. It therefore displays a different version of the website that doesn't require plug-ins, whereas the site doesn't recognize Windows RT and therefore shows a different website display.

One option to change this behavior is to make Internet Explorer lie and tell the website that the Windows RT device is actually an iOS device.

  1. Open Internet Explorer using the desktop version.

  2. Navigate to the website, then press F12 (FN + PgDn), which will open the developer tools.

  3. From the Tools menu, select Change user agent string and select Apple Safari.
    IE Set User Agent String

  4. The website will now think IE is Safari and use the iPad version of the site.

You might also be interested in Jason Bovberg's "The Microsoft Surface or the Apple iPad at Work?"

See more FAQs at John Savill's page.

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