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.
Enable or Disable Touchpad in Windows 11/10
Windows 11/10/8/7 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 it.
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:
- Disable laptop touchpad via Control Panel
- Disable laptop touchpad via Device Manager
- Disable laptop touchpad via Freeware
- Disable laptop touchpad via Windows Settings
To learn more about these ways, continue reading.
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 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.
Read: How to disable Touchpad when external mouse is attached.
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.
Read: Touchpad getting disabled automatically.
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 on tpp.desofto.com..
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 at touchfreeze.net.
4] Disable laptop touchpad via Windows Settings
It is probably the easiest method to disable the touchpad in Windows 11/10 when an external mouse is connected. To do that, follow these steps:
- Press Win+I to open Windows Settings.
- Go to Bluetooth & devices if you are using Windows 11.
- Go to Devices if you are using Windows 10.
- Click on the Touchpad menu.
- Tick the Leave touchpad on when a mouse is connected checkbox.
That’s it! From now onwards, your computer will disable the touchpad when the external mouse is connected.
How do I turn off my touchpad completely?
There are two ways to turn off your touchpad completely in Windows 11/10. You can do that using an in-built option in Windows Settings, or you can detach the touchpad from your mouse. The former solution is for those who do not have much hardware knowledge. However, if the touchpad is causing various issues, you can take the help of a professional to detach the touchpad hardware.
Can I disable my laptop touchpad?
Yes, you can disable your laptop touchpad. Whether you are using Windows 11 or Windows 10, you can completely disable your laptop touchpad with the help of this aforementioned guide. There are multiple ways to get the job done, but you can use Windows Settings to do it quickly.
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 your 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.
touchpad pal is not also compatible with windows 8. Pls suggest for windows 8 .
You can go for TouchFreeze in that case.
My Adesso keyboard have a touch pad that I want to disable. I have a desk top and windows 7 any advice?
TouchFreeze would be perfect except it also freezes my third party mouse. I want to use this for videogames so while using the keyboard to move around, I dont want my hand hitting the “fire” button on my touchpad.
My computer is broken. It won’t start up because it says it needs a driver.
Yaaaah, none of this works for Windows 8 from what I’ve seen. The Asus I have does not have anything to do this with and the area in the Device Manager for the touchpad disabling is grayed out. I had a talk about this with a friend of mine who is an IT tech, as am I, and he had to open the laptop up and physically pull the connection out. Win8 hates people configuring their own devices.
I am skiddish about most 3rd party app personally.
With 7, Device Manager should do well. If you go into that and find the touchpad device in the list, right click and choose Properties and do as shown above. My Toshiba has Win7 and it also has Toshiba’s own app for the touchpad. In that app I can set it up to automatically disable the pad when I plug a USB mouse.
Well, unless you know which driver, you are probably looking for a new PC then. I hate to say it and totally feel for you, but if it wont start up…of coarse, I do not know what all was done to try to get it to work. I have used a few tricks as an IT Tech, but there is no guarantee when I try them out.
THANK YOU SO MUCH Supreet! your links were up to date and I was able to download TouchFreeze which finally stoppped this mouse not only from moving all over the place but also from deleting in a fraction of a second, full paragraphs of what I had typed before! Take care! JJ
do you really think that I would be here if that advice worked. I go to control panel; Mouse; Touchpad: and it will not hold any of the settings that don’t work anyway.
u r gorgeous
Yeah, I’m just gonna go threw and figure out how to UNINSTALL mine- I never use it, and it’s just a thorn on my thumb. — I’m on Windows 10 btw :P
I think the best and easiest way is to find a plastic thin sheet covering the touchpad — those software does NO FUNCTION to my lifebook win8 that I got it in year 2015 — cover it (can’t find software or uninstall driver, try it all) cover touchpad < I meant, avoid all the hassale
I have Windows8 on my new laptop. I disabled the touch pad using Device Manager/Human Interface Devices/HID-compliant touchpad/ right click/disable.
Gabriel, You may have solved this by now, but if not, if your Windows10 is on an HP machine using a Synaptics touchpad, see the following HP Support site…
http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Software-and-How-To-Questions/Disable-Synaptics-Touchpad-Tap-to-Click-Via-Registry/td-p/2565859
Turning the touchpad off via mouse properties was easy, but I had to do it every time I booted up. It turns out there is a setting in the registry to go back to the default after upgrade, but in effect it goes back to default every time you reboot. Resetting this registry value enables it to retain whatever mouse property settings you selected — in this case checking the one that says to disable the touchpad whenever there’s a mouse connected.
That IS the problem, everytime while im writing and need to move the mouse they freeze for at least 2 seconds its SUPER annoying and EVERY time i uninstall Synaptics, they appear again when i restart the pc, there’s no way to keep synaptics unninstalled from my pc? i hate that pointing driver, its so annoying.
I am using this touchfreeze software the point is that it can detect when I am using the keyboard and so far it is not giving me any problems, i.e., it is performing as it is intended to that is if I am typing or using keyboard it disables the touch pad temporarily and I can see that the mouse disappears and the cursor doesn’t fly away anywhere. So, I will definitely recommend using this freeware.
1. Nothing about touchpad anywhere in control panel.
2. Cannot disable it in Gadgets(can disable mouse).
3. Useless
I use Touchpad Blocker. Still irritates me in games. I’m gonna physically block it, my touchpad doesn’t respond to any variant, is it Fn + F3 / F5, its nowhere to be found in Control panel except Gadgets, but it cannot be disabled… I even deleted it now, nothing happened, it’s still “working”…irritation work.
It’s unreal to play in this notebook “Ideal combi for games and work” huh. Are you retarded? Of course, you are!
Touchpad Pal does NOT work in 32 bit Windows 7 Pro and there is no settings to set it without an upgrade.
I myself will being trying other programs that may work.
30 year computer tech .
Touchfreeze and Touchpad Pal both do NOT work in Windows 7 Pro 32 bit and NEITHER have any options to set it.
–I have repeatedly tried both and none stops the touch pad while typing.
30 year computer tech.
Touchpad Blocker does NOT work. as soon as you reboot your computer the touchpad works again.