iOS 26 / iPadOS 26 Fullscreen vs. Windowed mode

Good news for iPad enthusiasts! iPadOS 26 ships with Windowed Mode turned on by default, which is great for multitasking.

Bad news for Kiosk users. We'll have to turn it off on each of our iPads after upgrading. Which may be installed automatically depending on your environment.

What is Windowed Mode?

Here's a brief overview from Apple:

How to turn it off?

Navigate to Settings, Multitasking * Gestures, then Windowed Apps.

Select Fullscreen Mode, instead of Windowed Apps.

That should be it. Your fullscreen kiosks apps will behave as they did before the update, for the most part.

An additional note, without an MDM you do need something like Guided Access to get the "Full Kiosk Experience" on iOS.

Updated on: 26/02/2026