The touchpad is a device for controlling input positioning on your laptop’s display screen. It has been around for decades and was introduced with the launch of laptop computers and notebooks. It provides the functionality of a mouse without the need for an extra peripheral. It works by sensing touch pressure and movement.
Can I Disable My Laptop’s Touchpad?
You can connect a mouse to your laptop and disable the touchpad. Some users prefer this because some Windows laptops do not provide the best touchpad experience like MacBook. The commonest reason for disabling the touchpad is that when accidentally triggered while typing, it sends the cursor to a different area on your screen, disrupting your work.
You cannot have the touchpad working as the input device at the same time with a mouse. Doing so will cause interference.
How to Disable Touchpad in Windows 10?
It is easy to disable the touchpad when you want to use a mouse. Some laptops have a button on the keyboard that can be used for this. There are, however, other ways to disable the touchpad in Windows 10 if the aforementioned option is not available to you.
- Disable Touchpad in Settings
In Windows 10, you can easily turn the touchpad on or off from the Settings utility of the operating system. All you need to do is:
- Open the Start Menu.
- Click on Settings.
- Select Devices.
- Click on Touchpad in the left pane of the window.
- In the right pane of the window, disable the toggle located right under Touchpad.
- Close the Settings window.
This method is pretty easy and straightforward.
- Disable Touchpad in Native Device Manager
The device manager has a listing of every device connected to your computer. You can enable or disable these devices from here. To disable the touchpad:
- To open Device Manager, launch the Run app (Windows key + R) > type Devmgmt.msc > press Enter. This is a simple shortcut.
- Double-click ‘mice and pointing devices’ to expand the category.
- Locate the touchpad listing, right-click on it and select Disable. Confirm the action by clicking ‘Yes’ on the resulting pop-up. (If there are multiple options with the same name, e.g. ‘HID-compliant mouse’, disabling the first HID-compliant mouse should turn off the touchpad. Otherwise, disable each entry until you find the one that’s for your touchpad).
To enable the touchpad again, simply follow the same process, only this time you choose Enable.
Should I disable my touchpad?
Before you disable your touchpad, be sure you have a mouse nearby. You’ll need it to operate your laptop afterwards.
If you know how to navigate the Device Manager with your keyboard, you can enable the touchpad again without using a mouse.
There are cases when your touchpad does not work anymore, even when it is enabled. When this happens, it is usually due to an out-of-date or missing driver. You can use Auslogics Driver Updater to fix this problem. It is compatible with Windows 10, 8.1, 7, Vista, and Windows XP. This tool searches the web for the latest driver updates for your system and installs them.
I hope you have found this content useful.
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