Touchpad gestures are not working on Windows 11/10

If you are a laptop user, you may know about touchpad gestures. In addition to moving a mouse cursor and clicking on the links, the laptop touchpad also has a multi-finger operation feature. This multi-finger operation is called the touchpad gesture. Touchpad gestures allow you to zoom in and zoom out, rotate an image, scroll up, down, left, and right, etc. For some users, touchpad gestures stopped working. According to them, they can control their mouse pointer by using the touchpad, but cannot use any of the multi-finger operations. In this article, we will see what you can do if the touchpad gestures are not working on your Windows 11/10 laptop.

There are many reasons why your touchpad gestures are not working on Windows 11/10. The main cause of this problem is the corrupted and outdated touchpad driver. Also, check your touchpad settings. It is possible that some of your gestures are disabled in the touchpad settings. If you have an ELAN touchpad, check if the ETD Control Center is running or not.

Touchpad gestures are not working on Windows 11/10

If the Touchpad gestures are not working on your Windows 11/10 laptop, use the following solutions to resolve the issue:

1. Check your touchpad settings
2. Check for Windows Update
3. Run the Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter
4. Make sure that the ETD Control Center is running
5. Run a Batch file (solution for Synaptics touchpad users)
6. Uninstall and reinstall your touchpad driver

Below, we have explained all these fixes in detail. But, before you begin, restart your computer and see if it helps.

1] Check your touchpad settings

If some of your touchpad gestures are not working, it is possible that someone has disabled them in touchpad settings (if your laptop is a shared laptop). We suggest you check your touchpad settings to confirm it. Follow the steps written below:

• Open the Control Panel.
• Type Mouse in the Control Panel Search.
• Select Mouse from the search results. This will open your mouse settings.
• Now, go to your touchpad tab and select Options to open your touchpad settings.
• Go to the Multi-finger tab and check if all the gestures are enabled or not.

If you find any touchpad gesture disabled, you can enable it and save the settings by clicking on the Apply button.

2] Check for Windows Update

Is your system running on the latest version of the Windows 11/10 operating system? Open Windows 11/10 Settings and check for Windows Updates. If an update is available, consider downloading and installing it. After installing the latest Windows Update, check if the problem persists.

3] Run the Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter

The Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter in Windows 11/10 helps users fix hardware-related problems. Because you are experiencing issues with your laptop touchpad, you can use this troubleshooting tool. Previously, it was available in Windows Settings. But later, Microsoft removed it from there. Now, you can launch this tool by executing a command in the Command Prompt.

4] Make sure that the ETD Control Center is running

This solution is for ELAN touchpad users. If your laptop has an ELAN touchpad, check if the ETD Control Center is running in the background or not. The ETD Control Center is software developed by ELAN Microelectronics. It is responsible for the multi-finger operation of a touchpad. The laptops with ELAN touchpad have this software pre-installed. It keeps running in the background. You can find it in the Task Manager under the Processes tab.

If you disable the ETD Control Center, some or all of your touchpad gestures will stop working, or the touchpad gestures will not work properly. Open the Task Manager and locate the ETD Control Center under the Processes tab. If it is not there, it might be disabled under the Startup apps. Go to the Startup apps tab in the Task Manager and enable it from there. After that restart your computer.

Related: TouchPad not working on Windows

5] Run a Batch file (solution for Synaptics touchpad users)

This solution is for Synaptics touchpad users. If your laptop has a Synaptics touchpad, running a Batch file will restart its driver which will resolve the issue. Copy the following command and paste it into Notepad.

taskkill -f -im syntpenh.exe
cd C:\Program Files\Synaptics\SynTP
start "" "syntpenh.exe"
exit

Now, save the Notepad file. While saving it, add .bat at the end of the file name. The .bat is an extension of the Batch file. Now, go to the location where you have saved the Batch file and double-click on the Batch file to run it. When you run a Batch file, the Command Prompt will open automatically and close by itself after the execution of the command.

If this works, you can add the Batch file to the Task Scheduler to make it run automatically on system startup.

6] Uninstall and reinstall your touchpad driver

The main cause of this problem is the corrupted touchpad driver. We suggest you reinstall your touchpad driver. To do so, follow the steps written below:

• Open the Device Manager.
• Expand the Mice and other pointing devices node.
• Right-click on your touchpad driver and select Uninstall device.
• Restart your computer after uninstalling the touchpad driver.

After restarting your computer, Windows will automatically install the missing touchpad driver. Now, check if the problem persists. If yes, we suggest you download the latest version of your laptop touchpad from your laptop manufacturer’s official website and install it manually.

How do I reset my touchpad gestures in Windows?

Whether you have installed Windows 10 or Windows 11, you can reset your touchpad gestures by restoring the default touchpad settings. To do so, open your touchpad settings and click on the button that resets the touchpad settings to default. On different laptops, you will find different text on the default button. For example, on my laptop, it is the Set all to default button.

I hope this helps.

Read next: Fix Touchpad error This device cannot start (Code 10) on Windows 11/10.