Does it drive you crazy when you are typing something on your laptop, and the cursor changes its position, most importantly breaking your concentration? Well, this occurs when you are in the full flow of typing on the keyboard, and you accidentally brush your palm or fingers across the touchpad, which causes the cursor to stray. This was bothering me for a long time, until recently when I decided to get rid of this issue which was hampering my productivity.
Disable Laptop Touchpad
Windows 10/8/7 by default, automatically detects your touchpad and for disabling your touchpad completely, you will need a 3rd party software. Most major and renowned laptop manufacturers like Lenovo, Asus, Dell, Acer, HP, etc., get the touchpads for laptops from a 3rd-party OEM provider. These providers have some official drivers on their website that you can use for disabling your touchpad in Windows. These drivers are available here.
There is also a list of supported Operating Systems at the above-mentioned link. You make your selection and then download.
OK – when I’m working, instead of using the touchpad, I prefer a mouse with my laptop, so it’s nearly of no use to me, especially when I’m typing. Therefore, it is best to disable the touchpad of your laptop. Here are a few ways how you can disable laptop touchpad in Windows:
1. Disable Laptop Touchpad via Control Panel
This option applies to users not using the touchpad at all, as this way they can disable it once and for all. For users who are just looking to disable it while typing, can use the freeware discussed below.
Go to Mouse Properties via Control Panel.
As seen in the screenshot, there is an option of Touchpad, from where you can simply turn off the touchpad and Save.
If you do not see this option in the Mouse Properties menu, it could only mean that you do not have the touchpad driver installed on your laptop.
At first, I did not see it either and downloaded the Synaptics Touchpad Driver Download world of warcraft pirata. from Dell.com. (I’m using Dell Inspiron 15), which totally solved my purpose. After installing the driver, I could access the option of disabling the touchpad from the tray icon and also through the shortcut from my keyboard – Fn + F3 (which was not working until I installed the driver). Therefore, I would suggest you visit your respective vendor’s website and download the touchpad driver for a permanent solution.
2. Disable Laptop Touchpad via Device Manager
In case you do not find the driver, there is yet another option to disable your touchpad is through the Device Manager, but FYI, it only gives you the option to uninstall the driver, so make sure you keep a backup first and then go for it.
3. Disable Laptop Touchpad via Freeware
This solution applies to those of you, who do not use a mouse and just need a temporary solution to disable the touchpad only while typing.
Touchpad Pal: It is a useful tool for Windows users. Touchpad Pal will detect any keyboard activity and immediately disable the touchpad.
Go get Touchpad here.
TouchFreeze: It is a simple tool which will automatically disable your laptop’s touchpad as soon as you start typing.
You can download TouchFreeze here.
Accidentally Turned Off Touchpad Dell
I hope the suggestions are useful. Do share your feedback with us.
This post will show you how to reset Touchpad settings to default. See this if you cursor jumps or moves randomly while typing – and this one if Touchpad is locked on your laptop.
Read next: Enable, configure & use Precision Touchpad settings in Windows 10.
TIP: Download this tool to quickly find & fix Windows errors automatically
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Description: This article describes how to enable the touchpad on a Lenovo Ideapad Z400.
- When notebook computers go to sleep, hibernate or an update occurs for windows, it can keep the touchpad from working.
- On the keyboard, the keys that are used to enable or disable the touchpad is the Fn + F8.
- Hold down the FN key and then tap the F8 key which has this symbol.
- This is a toggle switch that turns on and off the touchpad. Turning off the touchpad is useful for when you are typing and wish to keep the cursor from moving from one location to another, causing words to be typed in the wrong location. As well as using the Multi-touch screen to navigate through Windows.
Toshiba laptops feature a 'Disable/Enable' button conveniently located above the touchpad. Press it accidentally and your touchpad instantly stops working. Press the button again and the touchpad should be restored to functionality. If the touchpad does not respond, it is either disabled in the Device Manager or missing the required drivers.
Toshiba Assist Software
Step 1
Click 'Start | All Programs | Toshiba | Utilities | Toshiba Assist.'
Step 2
Step 3
Click the 'Hardware' tab and select your touchpad from the list of devices. If more than one device is listed, choose 'PS/2 Compatible Mouse.'
Step 4
Click 'Properties' and then click the 'Change Settings' button, if it is displayed in the window. You may be prompted to enter an administrator password.
Select the 'Driver' tab and click 'Enable.' Do not worry if the button is grayed out, which may be the case on some systems. Click 'OK' twice and then click 'Close' to exit.
Device Manager
Step 1
Click 'Start,' right-click 'Computer' and select 'Properties.'
Step 2
Select the 'Device Manager' link on the left side of the screen.
Step 3
Click to expand 'Mouse and Other Pointing Devices.'
Step 4
Right-click 'PS/2 Compatible Mouse' and click 'Properties.'
Driver Installation
Step 1
Click 'Start | All Programs | My Toshiba | Toshiba Application Installer.' Click 'Yes' and type the administrator password if prompted by User Account Control. Download the software installer from Toshiba.com if it is missing from your computer (link in Resources).
Step 2
Click 'Install Applications and Drivers' if this option isn't already selected, and then click 'Next.'
Step 3
Scroll down and locate the touchpad driver. Depending on the model, it might be listed as 'Synaptics Touch Pad Driver' or something similar.
Step 4
Click 'Install' and 'Start.' Wait while the files are extracted to a temporary folder.
Step 5
Click 'Next' and 'I Accept This Agreement.' Click 'Next' again to install the drivers and touchpad software.
Tip
- The Assist software should have been pre-installed on your laptop. Download it from Toshiba or install it from the Application Installer if it is missing (link in Resources).
Warning
- Do not tamper with the touchpad unless you have an alternative pointing device. Disabling the touchpad without a mouse leaves you with only the keyboard.
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In June a friend bought a Lenovo Z50-70 laptop running Win 8.1. He particularly dislikes touchpads so uses a mouse. In 8.1 I was able to disable the touchpad for him, via Device Manager. He's now updated to Win 10 and the touchpad has come back to life. I've been trying to disable it again, so far without success.
In 'Settings', the only option under touchpad is to alter the delay on using 'click'. No help there so I went to Control Panel.
In 'Device Manager > Mice and other pointing devices' there are only two options, 'HID-compliant mouse' (which has a disable option) and 'Lenovo Pointing Device', which I assume refers to the touch pad (is this assumption right?) and which can be uninstalled but has no 'disable' option.
In 'Device Manager > Human Interface Devices' amongst other things there are two entries both named 'HID-compliant vendor-defined device'. Both can potentially be disabled, but without further knowledge I'm disinclined to disable them in case I inadvertently disable the mouse in the process.
Any advice will be appreciated
It’s been the bane of laptop users for years: you’re typing away, your palm brushes the trackpad, and the accidental click inserts the cursor in the middle of the text completely screwing things up. Banish the frustration of accidental trackpad clicks with the handy built-in Windows 10 settings.
Why Do I Want To Do This?
Trackpads might be a very clever way to pack a mouse into a laptop palm rest but for years and years they’ve been a huge pain to use on account of their proximity to your palms and how sensitive they are. It’s natural for your hands to either rest on or brush the palmrest of your laptop while you’re typing but errant brushes will often register as a tap. As a result the next keystrokes you make won’t be where the end of the line you were finishing is but wherever in the body of text the cursor moved as a result of the keystroke.
Some manufacturers addressed the issue with utilities that allowed you to tweak the sensitivity or outright disable the trackpad while typing, and there has been a host of third-party applications over the years, like TouchFreeze and TouchPad, that temporarily lock the touchpad when you’re typing.
Hp Laptop Accidentally Turned Off Touchpad
Since Windows 8, however, Windows finally Ui cheats extension mod. has native touchpad management that aligns with user needs and you no longer have to rely on manufacturer utilities (which may or may not exist) or third-party apps.
Let’s take a look at adjusting the trackpad features and, while we’re already mucking around in the mouse options, some other very handy trackpad/mouse tweaks to make for improved productivity on your laptop.
Adjusting Trackpad Sensitivity in Windows 10
Not only did Microsoft introduce the feature in Windows 8 but they also, wisely, turned it on by default. That doesn’t mean it couldn’t use a little tweaking (one of the first things we do on every laptop we install Windows on is adjust the sensitivity and make a few other tweaks).
You can locate the mouse settings by clicking on the taskbar search box and plugging in, simply enough, “mouse” to pull up the “Mouse & touchpad settings” entry.
Inside the settings menu you’ll find entries to tweak mouse buttons, scroll speed, scrolling when hovering over inactive windows (a really great feature we used to, back in the day, use a third-party utility for), and the entry we’re really looking for: the touchpad delay.
By default it is set to “Medium delay” but you can turn it off, shorten the delay, or lengthen the delay. Because we’ve been traumatized by years of bad touchpad integration and cursors skipping all over the place, we have our laptops set to “Long delay”.
Further Laptop-Centric Tweaks
While we’re in the mouse settings, there are a few extra tweaks worth looking at. The following tweaks aren’t new to Windows 10 but they’re often overlooked by mobile users. At the bottom of the settings menu seen in the previous section, click on the “Additional mouse options” in the “Related settings” section at the bottom of the window.
That will pop up the Mouse Properties menu (which has a distinctly old school Windows look compared to the updated UI we were just using). Within the Mouse Properties there are a handful of little tweaks that really improve both trackpad and mouse functionality on laptops.
Under the “Buttons” tab check off “ClickLock”. We don’t know about your laptop (or your trackpad-fu skills) but drag and dropping items on a trackpad is totally hit or miss for us (and usually ends up in a juddering mess that doesn’t end with the file or folder dropping where we want it). ClickLock allows you to press and hold on a file or folder and it will lock it to the cursor as if you’re performing a traditional click-to-hold maneuver with a regular mouse so that you can more comfortably and successfully drag it with your trackpad.
Under the “Pointer Options” tab, it helps cut down on the number of times you drag, drag, and drag your finger across the trackpad to crank up the pointer speed to the fastest setting. We don’t know about you but we don’t have time swipe the tiny trackpad on our ultrabook four times just to get across the screen.
In the “Visibility” subsection we also check off “Hide pointer while typing” and “Show location of pointer when I press CTRL key”. That last option might be a holdover desire from the amount of time we’ve logged on multiple monitor setups (where we always manage to lose the cursor) but it’s very handy even on smaller screens.
Finally, if you’re looking for maximum speed and don’t mind the cursor occasionally jumping where you don’t want it to go the “Snap To” function will automatically move your cursor to default dialog button boxes when those dialog boxes pop up. We usually leave that unchecked, finding it more of an annoyance than a help, but if you’re a more mouse-oriented user you may find it to be a pleasant timesaver.
It took a long time and years of us tweaking our trackpad with third-party apps, but Windows finally fixed our trackpad woes with a simple and effective native solution. Have a Windows tweaking tip or trick of your own to share? Shoot us an email at [email protected] or hop into the comments below to share.
Image credit: Nicola.
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