Disabling the touchpad on laptops

How to disable the touchpad on a laptop

An analysis of Internet search queries shows that many are interested in how the touchpad is disabled on a laptop, and especially in Windows 10. This issue will be discussed in detail in this article.

How to disable the touchpad on a laptop

Contents

Few facts

The word touchpad comes from a combination of two English words: touch – to touch and pad – pad.

The touchpad is touch sensitive

The device is a sensitive panel through which, by touching the fingers, you control the cursor and send commands to the laptop.

Working on a simple technical principle (on the control of the electrical capacity between the finger and the measuring sensors), they appeared in the early eighties of the last century (1982).

The first touchpads looked like this

Can you imagine? Many companies producing laptops (not to mention themselves) did not exist yet (Asus, for example, 1989). Windows hasn’t been invented yet (Windows 1 – 1985).

And the touchpad was already there. And now all laptops, netbooks and ultrabooks are equipped with them.

Interesting As one of the main manufacturers of this device, Synaptics has registered the word TouchPad as a trademark.

Blocking methods

With full use of the keyboard on a laptop, it often happens that the touchpad, responding to your involuntary touch, makes its own unnecessary edits to the text.

Basically, if you are not using the touchpad, then it is logical to disable it. This can be done in different ways depending on the specific situation.

Windows 7

Device Manager

By placing the mouse on the “My Computer” icon on the desktop and right-clicking on it, you will open the context menu. In it you need to select the “Control” command, then “Device Manager”.

"Control" item in the context menu

Your touchpad will also be in the device structure, since the system sees it.

Calling its properties with the right mouse, it is easy to disable the gadget.

Disable touchpad in device manager

Mouse settings

If your laptop has a built-in Synaptics gadget, then you can easily configure its auto-shutdown by connecting a mouse. The adjustment of these characteristics is in the “Windows Control Panel” / “Mouse”:

Auto-disable touchpad when mouse is connected

Registry

Sometimes the touchpad utilities do not have the ability to disable it through the Device Manager and install the mouse (there is no such checkbox).

In this case, you need to correct the registry (do not forget to make a copy first).

Backing up registry data in Windows

First, we get to the desired section – through HKEY_LOKAL_MACHINE we get to Software. Then, through Synaptics, getting into SynTPEnh, we create a key called DisableIntPDFeature.

Creating the DisablePDFeature registry key for the checkbox to appear

We activate its changes with the right mouse, assign the value 33 for the hexadecimal system or 51 for the decimal system.

We repeat the same steps for the HKU branch of the registry.

After that, the required checkbox should appear.

Windows 10

Of great interest is the disabling of the sensor in Windows 10, since the handling of the Windows 10 environment is somewhat different from the seven and eight. Let’s look at how to disable the touchpad on some laptops with Windows 10 installed. On devices from other manufacturers, the situation will be similar.

Lenovo

First, Windows 10 Settings from Start is launched:

Then the “Devices” window is activated, and in it the page for “Mouse and touchpad” is activated:

Auto Disable Touchpad on Lenovo Laptop

On the “ELAN” tab, you need to activate the checkbox, as shown in the figure, and then click “Apply”:

Asus

If your Asus laptop is running Windows 10 and there is a Synaptics sensor with a native driver, then disable it from the Synaptics page on the “Mice” tab from the Windows 10 control panel (see the previous example) by activating the disable button.

If this button is not present or is not available, then you need to download and install the correct driver (available on the Asus website).

Find drivers for your specific ASUS laptop model

If the manufacturer of the touchpad is different, then you need to disable the driver through the Windows 10 Control Panel.

Acer

For Acer models, we recommend using the standard Windows settings to enable / disable the touchpad. It is very simple to do this: go to the “Settings” → “Devices” section and open the “Touch Panel” tab, then click on the switch in the line with the same name.

Alternatively, in the Mouse Settings category, find the Device Settings tab. If all the official drivers are installed on the laptop, you will see the only option in the list that should be disabled.

Dell

For owners of Dell branded equipment, there is the following algorithm:

  • In the search box, enter the word “Touchpad”.
  • Select Mouse & Touchpad Options.
  • Find the appropriate switch and move the slider to the “On” position. or Off, as appropriate.

Turning off the Dell touchpad

If there is no switch, click Advanced Mouse Options → Dell TouchPad. Click on the sensor image, move the slider and save the changes.

Hp

Most models from HP cannot please their users with a certain key combination in order to disable the sensor, unlike other manufacturers. Another way to solve this problem is to double-tap in the upper left corner of the touchpad or hold your finger for five seconds on the same area.

For the same purpose, you can use the settings for touch devices by going to the “Advanced Settings” section in the “Touchpad” menu. In the window that opens, check the box next to the text “Disable external pointing device if USB pointing device is connected”

Buttons on laptops

On different models, the touchpad can be stopped by different “hot” (quick) keys. Often, it is for the sensor that there is a separate key that must be used to disable.

If we talk about the Asus laptop, then the shutdown can be carried out with the keys “Fn + F9”, possibly “Fn + F7”. Some Asus models are equipped with a dedicated button that depicts a crossed out touchpad. Then you need to use the “Fn” button in combination with it.

If the problem cannot be solved in any way and the touchpad does not turn off, you need to download and install the driver from the official Asus website.

Function keys of the laptop ASUS X75A

On the Sony Vaio, the native Sony utility will give you the option to disable the touchpad in the Keyboard & Mouse category. You can use on a SonyVaio laptop and hotkeys – “Fn + F1”

For notebooks of the Samsung and Toshiba series, the combination of function keys “Fn + F5” is most often used, provided that all the official utilities are preinstalled.

Windows Mobility Center

Some laptops, notably Dell laptops, have an option to disable the touchpad in the OS Mobility Center. It can be opened by right-clicking on the battery icon in the notification area, or through the search bar (“Win + Q”).

The shortcut keys Win + Q

Next, you should find the touch panel element and click on the “Turn off” button. The settings will be saved automatically, there is no need to perform additional operations.

Via BIOS settings

Disable the touchpad via BIOS by setting the “Disable” position in the “Internal Pointing Device” object. You need to search for it in the “Advanced” section.

But that can be easier said than done. For many, the difficulty is entering the BIOS.

To enter Windows 10 in UEFI, you need to hold down the F2 key while booting.

Button options for entering BIOS, depending on the manufacturer, are shown in the picture below. It does not list the keys for the manufacturer Asus. For Asus laptops, the most commonly used key is “F2”, in some models – in combination with “Ctrl”.

Installing a special program

Probably the most ingenious solution to disable the touchpad is to install a special program TachpadPal, which blocks the sensor while typing.

Just think – and you don’t need to deal with Windows 10, you don’t have to look for and install true drivers, you don’t need to look for a path in the BIOS either on Asus, or on Sony Vaio, or on any other exotic.

Maybe this was the real purpose of writing the program?

TouchPad Blocker. – another fairly popular application for forced stop of the sensor. If the previous methods did not lead to the desired result, this utility will definitely not fail. It has a wide range of quite interesting functions for working with the touchpad, in addition to locking it completely. Among them are the temporary disabling of the pointer, multitouch and scrolling, as well as the ability to independently assign convenient keys for quick on and off. The program will not interfere with annoying notifications or pop-up windows, it is located in the tray, so that nothing will distract and disturb you.

Touchpad Blocker

Configuring the utility is not very complicated and includes the following parameters:

  • Autostart at system startup.
  • Adjustment of notifications (including sound).
  • The main option is to block touch input.
  • Installing hot keys.

Physical disconnection of the touchpad loop

Probably the most radical, but at the same time one hundred percent measure, which it is impossible not to talk about within the framework of this article. The procedure is to disconnect the touch panel contacts from the motherboard connector. The advantage of this method is the lack of attachment to any particular OS.

Disabling the touchpad loop

It rarely comes to this, since one of the above options must definitely work. The process is extremely time consuming, so you should resort to it only in extreme cases.

This article has covered all the possible ways to disable the touchpad on laptops. And depending on the operating environment, and depending on the difference in device models.

We hope that with our help the issue of disabling the touchpad will no longer weigh you down and will be resolved.

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