On Windows 10, touchpads not only offer a mechanism to navigate the user interface, but over the years they have improved, and now you can also use gestures to perform navigation tasks even faster. However, even with all the changes, many users still prefer the traditional mouse.
Although you can disable the touchpad completely, if you prefer to use a mouse, it's possible to configure Windows 10 to disable the touchpad automatically only when a USB or Bluetooth mouse is connected. This way, if you need to work with your laptop, and you don't have a mouse nearby, you can still move around the OS to get work done.
In this Windows 10 guide, we'll walk you through the easy steps to disable your laptop's touchpad when you connect a mouse using the Settings app and Control Panel.
How to disable touchpad when mouse is connected using Settings
Once you completed the steps, the touchpad will remain disabled unless you disconnect your mouse.
How to disable touchpad when mouse is connected using Control Panel
It should be noted that the option in the Settings app is only available on devices featuring a precision touchpad. If you have another type of touchpad, it's possible to change the mouse settings using Control Panel, or a third-party tool -- usually provided by your device manufacturer.
For example, if you're using a Synaptics touchpad, you can use Control Panel to change the mouse settings using the following steps:
Also, note that depending on the manufacturer, the option to disable the touchpad when a mouse is connected can be buried within the support software.
For example, on some Dell laptops, the setting to disable the touchpad is located in the Dell's support software.
More Windows 10 resources
For more helpful articles, coverage, and answers to common questions about Windows 10, visit the following resources:
Some people have asked on this forum how gestures can be enabled in their PCs. But gestures can also be a pain if they can´t be disabled. The touchpad of my Win 10 laptop has the mouse buttons integrated within the pad, so I very often have both my left and right hand fingers touching the pad at the same time. The result? Everything zooms, all the time! Web pages, applications, desktop icons, everything!
Microsoft have in their wisdom decided that only touchpads meeting their specific requirements may be called Precision Touchpads and can have their gesture settings displayed in the Control Panel. Other touchpads that do not qualify may still be able to perform gestures, but if the PC is delivered with gestures enabled, there is nowhere you can disable them. So, I have had to stop using my touchpad and use an external mouse instead. I am not alone, I have found quite a few people with the same problem on various forums, but still noone with a solution.
My touchpad (of unknown make) doesn´t come with its own driver, it is using a standard Microsoft HID mouse driver. One forum visitor tipped me of the option to install a Synaptics driver and enforce replacement of the original Microsoft driver. Then the value of a specific Synaptics registry key should be changed, supposedly causing gestures to disappear. Everything went fine, the touchpad still behaves as before, but that registry key didn´t look and work like expected, so the zoom is still there. I can see a lot of registry keys that look like they are defining options of the Synaptics settings tab that should appear under Mouse settings in the Control Panel - if that tab could only be made to appear.
So, this is a cry for help. I just can´t believe that gestures can´t be enabled/disabled just because there is no UI appearing in the Control Panel. I think there is probably a magic registry key somewhere or one that needs to be created. Suggestions, anyone?
bwDraco
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BjornBjorn
2 Answers
I found this in the registry:
HCUSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionPrecisionTouchpad>ZoomEnabled
mine is set to 1 (enabled) set it to 0
I would uninstall the synaptics driver first.
MoabMoab
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Go into additional mouse/touchpad options, then into gestures, and turn gestures OFF. It is worth it not to have to deal with the screen popping all over the place! Just use your scroll bar like we used to...
kgraysonkgrayson
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged windows-10touchpadgestures or ask your own question.
Some people have asked on this forum how gestures can be enabled in their PCs. But gestures can also be a pain if they can´t be disabled. The touchpad of my Win 10 laptop has the mouse buttons integrated within the pad, so I very often have both my left and right hand fingers touching the pad at the same time. The result? Everything zooms, all the time! Web pages, applications, desktop icons, everything!
Microsoft have in their wisdom decided that only touchpads meeting their specific requirements may be called Precision Touchpads and can have their gesture settings displayed in the Control Panel. Other touchpads that do not qualify may still be able to perform gestures, but if the PC is delivered with gestures enabled, there is nowhere you can disable them. So, I have had to stop using my touchpad and use an external mouse instead. I am not alone, I have found quite a few people with the same problem on various forums, but still noone with a solution.
My touchpad (of unknown make) doesn´t come with its own driver, it is using a standard Microsoft HID mouse driver. One forum visitor tipped me of the option to install a Synaptics driver and enforce replacement of the original Microsoft driver. Then the value of a specific Synaptics registry key should be changed, supposedly causing gestures to disappear. Everything went fine, the touchpad still behaves as before, but that registry key didn´t look and work like expected, so the zoom is still there. I can see a lot of registry keys that look like they are defining options of the Synaptics settings tab that should appear under Mouse settings in the Control Panel - if that tab could only be made to appear.
So, this is a cry for help. I just can´t believe that gestures can´t be enabled/disabled just because there is no UI appearing in the Control Panel. I think there is probably a magic registry key somewhere or one that needs to be created. Suggestions, anyone?
bwDraco
37.5k3737 gold badges142142 silver badges179179 bronze badges
BjornBjorn
2 Answers
I found this in the registry:
HCUSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionPrecisionTouchpad>ZoomEnabled
mine is set to 1 (enabled) set it to 0
I would uninstall the synaptics driver first.
MoabMoab
52k1414 gold badges9797 silver badges161161 bronze badges
Go into additional mouse/touchpad options, then into gestures, and turn gestures OFF. It is worth it not to have to deal with the screen popping all over the place! Just use your scroll bar like we used to...
kgraysonkgrayson
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged windows-10touchpadgestures or ask your own question.
On Windows 10, 'Precision Touchpad' is a implementation designed to overcome the limitations found with traditional touchpads.
Using this approach, instead of manufacturers having to build drivers that translate touchpad signals into mouse and gesture inputs, Windows 10 is able to understand the inputs directly. This means that on devices with supported hardware, the implementation can provide a more accurate and reliable pointer, and it enables other features, such as a broader range of multi-touch gestures, accidental activation prevention, battery life, security, and the ability to customize a lot of new settings.
If you have a relatively new laptop (such as a Surface Pro 6 or a Dell XPS laptop), it's likely it includes support for Precision Touchpad, and you can customize the experience to suit your preferences, which can help you to improve navigation speeds and productivity.
In this Windows 10 guide, we'll show you how to find out if your device includes support for Precision Touchpad, and we'll outline the steps to enable, disable, and customize the experience.
How to check if your device supports Precision Touchpad
Although nowadays most laptops and hybrid devices come with a Precision Touchpad, there are still devices, especially older laptops, that don't support this technology. You can quickly find out if you can use and customize multi-touch gestures with your touchpad using these steps:
If you don't see the message, you'll still find the settings page, but you'll only get an option to adjust the touchpad sensitivity.
Alternatively, if your device doesn't include support for Precision Touchpads, you can use this workaround to replace the current trackpad driver with the Microsoft driver for laptops that use Synaptics or Elan drivers.
How to enable (or disable) Precision Touchpad
The ability to use gestures with a touchpad can be useful to improve your productivity, but it's not something for everyone and does not always works flawlessly. If you want to disable the experience, use the following steps:
If you also use your device with a traditional mouse, you can choose to disable the touchpad as you connect the mouse by clearing the Leave touchpad on when a mouse is connected option. In addition, you can use the available slider to adjust the cursor speed on the screen.
How to customize taps with Precision Touchpad
The default settings are usually good enough for most users, but you can customize many aspects of Precision Touchpads. For example, using the 'Taps' options, you can customize the tapping behavior when using a touchpad when clicking and selecting. Here's how:
How to customize scroll and zoom with Precision Touchpad
The Windows 10 Precision Touchpad settings also allow you to decide if you can use gesture to scroll content, the scrolling direction, and if you can use pinch to zoom, just like on tablets. Here's how.
In addition, under the 'Scroll and zoom' section, you can enable or disable pinch to zoom depending on your preferences.
How to customize three-finger (or four-finger) gestures with Precision Touchpad
Using the Precision Touchpad settings, you can control gestures with three or four fingers, which helps you speed up navigation when working with multiple apps, virtual desktops, and you can even use gestures to control audio and volume. Here's how:
If the touchpad supports it, you'll also find a section to configure an additional gesture using four fingers.
How to customize advanced gestures with Precision Touchpad
Using the Settings app, it's also possible to customize additional advanced settings when using three-finger (or four-finger) gestures on the touchpad, and you can access and customize the settings using these steps:
Instead of using one of the sets of actions under 'Three-finger gestures' (or 'Four-finger gestures'), this page allows you to specify custom actions for each swipe or tap.
For instance, you can select to use a three-finger tap or swipe on the Precision Touchpad to open Action Center. Or you can choose the Custom shortcut option to specify a keyboard shortcut that you want to execute when using a three-finger tap.
How To Disable Zoom On Touchpad
Here's a list of actions that you can use with the three-finger gesture:
After completing these steps, the three-finger gesture will execute the custom command you specified.
How to reset settings with Precision Touchpad
If you made changes to use the touchpad with custom configurations, you can restore the original settings using these steps:
Once you complete these steps, the touchpad will revert to its default settings.
More Windows 10 resources
For more helpful articles, coverage, and answers to common questions about Windows 10, visit the following resources:
Now playing:Watch this: Change these Windows 10 settings for a better experience
There are two general ways your laptop's touchpad can break bad. The first is the nuclear option where it just stops working, which is uncommon but can happen after a software update. The more common occurrence is where your the touchpad on a new laptop feels finicky or skittish, registering unintended gestures while failing to recognize your intended swipes, pinches, taps and clicks. Acting in ways you wish it wouldn't.
Windows How To Disable Zoom On Touchpad
I'll cover both cases for Windows 10 ($119 at Amazon)laptops -- dead and acting poorly. I'm using a Dell Latitude laptop with Windows 10 for this post, but touchpad settings vary by manufacturer. Your mileage, as they say, may vary.
Revive a dead touchpad
If your laptop doesn't feature a touchscreen display, then you will need a mouse to revive a disabled touchpad. With your touchscreen or mouse, open Settings and go to Devices > Mouse & touchpad. Scroll down to the bottom of the screen and click Additional mouse options.
The Mouse Properties window will open. Click the tab that lists your laptop's touchpad -- mine is labeled Dell Touchpad. If you don't see such a tab, then look for a tab labeled ELAN or Device Settings, where you'll see your touchpad listed under Devices. Click on the touchpad to select it and then click Enable. On my Dell Latitude, the Dell Touchpad tab featured a link that opened a custom Dell settings window whose main page had a toggle switch for turning the touchpad on and off.
One other thing to try is to see if your laptop has a function key that enables/disables the touchpad. It should look like a tiny touchpad with a diagonal line through it (it may be Fn + F5, Fn + F6 or something else entirely). Try toggling this key if you have it before you freak out about possible touchpad woes.
Settle down a skittish touchpad
There are a number of ways a touchpad can feel wonky. Perhaps your cursor is moving too fast or too slow. Maybe the touchpad feels too sensitive, registering phantom clicks and gestures. Or maybe it's not sensitive enough, making you repeat yourself. Thankfully, Windows 10 offers a number of settings to fine tune how your touchpad reacts to your clicks, taps and swipes.
First up, set the speed of your cursor. On the Mouse Properties windows, click the Pointers Options tab and play around with the slider for Select a pointer speed until you find a speed you can work with. You can also speed up or slow down the double-click speed; the slider for this setting can be found on the Buttons tab.
Next, let's get your touchpad gestures in order. On my Dell Latitude, the settings for all touchpad settings are located in Dell's custom Pointing Devices shell, which is accessible from the Dell Touchpad tab in the Mouse Properties window in Mouse & touchpad settings.
On any Windows laptop I use for any length of time, I always disable two touchpad settings: tapping and zoom. Tapping lets you tap the touchpad to perform a click instead of using a mouse button. I find it's more a nuisance than convenience because it makes a touchpad constantly think I'm tapping when I'm not. I also find a touchpad regularly thinks I'm pinching to zoom when the only time I use that gesture is when I'm using Google Maps. Since I don't use Google Maps all that often on my laptop, zoom is out. When you disable the zoom gesture, you may see a setting for rotate. I disable that too, since I don't use that gesture either.
I also change the default direction for swiping vertically. On my Dell Latitude, it offers a checkbox for Reverse Scroll Direction.
How To Disable Zoom On Touchpad Windows 10 Lenovo
Lastly, if you back out of the Mouse Properties window and return to the Mouse & touchpad panel in Settings, you'll see a Touchpad delay setting. By default, it's set to Medium delay. I suggest moving it to Long delay, which helps to keep the touchpad from registering your palm as a tap as you type and jumping your cursor to a new spot in your document. Dell also offers a slider for TouchGuard, which performs a similar function of preventing unwanted cursor jumps from your palms when typing.
Update your drivers
I'm using a 2017 Dell Latitude and when I tried to update the touchpad driver, I was told that the driver was up-to-date; the driver is from 2006. So, the odds are your touchpad driver is current and not the source of your touchpad problems. Still, it's worth checking if your touchpad is acting up. To do so, search for Device Manager, open it, go to Mice and other pointing devices, and find your touchpad (mine is labeled HID-compliant mouse, but yours may be named something else). Right-click on your touchpad and click Update Driver Software.
Your laptop will check the internet for updated driver software and, hopefully, update accordingly. If your computer can't find an updated driver, you may need to look for the updated driver by yourself. Look at the downloads sections of your laptop manufacturer's website or just Google '[LAPTOP MODEL] Windows 10 touchpad driver.' You may need to uninstall your old touchpad driver (Device Manger, right-click on touchpad, Uninstall) before installing the new driver.
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