"Tablet mode-like" behavior in File Explorer

I gave my old Surface Pro 6 with to my sister to use beside her desktop monitor with a USB keyboard & mouse. Set-up went well. I had "upgraded" the SP6 to Win11 Pro and installed 22H2 and more recent updates/patches.

We'd like to have the SP6 (without the keyboard) standing beside the desktop monitor as a secondary screen.

However, one annoying feature of the configuration is that when the keyboard is disconnected from the SP6, Win11 goes into some "tablet mode" on the SP6 screen whereby a checkbox appears in front of files in File Explorer and the file listings have the wide spacing between items even though those features are specifically unchecked in File Explorer options.

On the external monitor the checkboxes and wide spacing don't occur, nor do they appear on the SP6 when the keyboard is attached.

Is there some tweak or workaround to have File Explorer on the SP6 screen without checkboxes and wide spacing when the keyboard is unattached from the SP6?

There’s no manual way to enable or disable the tablet mode in Windows 11. Instead, the system is created to be intuitive, automatically switching two modes once you detach the keyboard or flip the device. Simply put, Windows is seeing it as a tablet when the keyboard is detached.

Have you tried Option 3 in Brink's Tutorial for disabling tablet mode by a registry change?
To Turn On or Off Tablet Mode using a REG file

I do not think garlin's suggestion will work in 11 but guess it's worth a try. I ran across one obscure post that had your exact issue. You might try it. He said "Personalization-Taskbar Behaviors - UNCHECK Optimize taskbar for touch interacations - THIS SOLVED IT FOR ME!"
that thread here disable tablet mode in windows 11 - Microsoft Q&A

wpcoe said:

a checkbox appears in front of files in File Explorer and the file listings have the wide spacing between items even though those features are specifically unchecked in File Explorer options.

Click to expand...

glasskuter said:

I ran across one obscure post that had your exact issue. You might try it. He said "Personalization-Taskbar Behaviors - UNCHECK Optimize taskbar for touch interacations - THIS SOLVED IT FOR ME!"

Click to expand...

Unfortunately that doesn't seem to work for my Dell Latitude 3190 2-in-1 convertible. It only changes the behaviour of the taskbar, File Explorer continues to ignore the settings in Options when used as a tablet.