How to Disable Touchpad on Windows 10/8.1/8/7/XP/Vista
There are many situations in which you need to disable touchpad on your laptop. For example, when you are typing, your thumbs or palm may accidentally touch the touchpad and the mouse cursor will move to a different area in your computer — the touchpad is getting in the way.
To turn off touchpad, you can try many methods. If you don’t like this touchpad feature, you can follow the ways below to disable it.
Note: Touchpad on a laptop or notebook is also called trackpad.
4 Methods to Disable Touchpad/Trackpad on Windows 10/8.1/8/7/XP/Vista
The ways to disable a touchpad depends on the hardware. Most modern laptops share the same way to turn off this feature. Below are 4 methods.
Method 1. Use Function Keys
You can use Function keys to toggle the state of the touchpad, like Fn + F5 to disable touchpad on Dell laptops, hold the top-left corner of the touchpad for a few seconds to disable HP laptops, or Fn + F7 to disable the touchpad on some other PCs.
Method 2. Try Buttons or Icons
Many new laptops and notebooks have a physical button to turn on/off the touch pad, or there is an icon in the system tray to allow you to manage the touchpad settings. Check your PCs carefully or check your laptop’s documentation.
Method 3. Go to Control Panel
The common method is to disable the touchpad on Control Panel. Go to Control Panel. You can try “Control Panel” in the Start search box to locate it. In the pop-up Control Panel window, select “Mouse Properties”, “Touch Pad” and you will see the feature to disable or enable the touchpad.
Method 4. Uninstall the Touchpad Driver
A touchpad driver is the software to allow your computer to communicate with the touchpad. If you uninstall the touchpad driver, the touchpad won’t work on your computer. And if you want to enable the touchpad, just install the driver and it will work properly.
To uninstall the touchpad driver, you can try Driver Talent. It helps you to instantly uninstall the driver. It’s easy to use. Here is how:
Step 1. Free download and install Driver Talent on your laptop on Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows Server.
Step 2. Launch this utility and click on “Tools”. Select the “Uninstall” menu. You will see all drivers that you can uninstall from your computer. Choose your touchpad and click “Uninstall”.
Step 3. After all is done, restart your computer for all changes to take effect.
If you want to enable the touchpad on your computer, just try Driver Talent again to install the touchpad driver in the “Download and Update” menu.
If you want to disable the touchpad completely, you can try BIOS. The methods to reach the Pointing Devices section in your BIOS vary from laptops.
Great article. Now, how about some suggestions that work?
Method 1: Windows 10 disabled my function key shortcut.
Method 2: We’re really just giving the same suggestion as 1 here, aren’t we?
Method 3: That would be wonderful! If I had a device settings tab on my mouse properties box (or an elan tab like I’ve seen elsewhere), but if those things ever existed on my computer, they don’t now because windows 10 removed them.
Method 4: Did that. Several times. computer restarts twice in a row and at no point does the touchpad stop working.
Method 5: Uninstall Windows 10. Only thing I can find that might work, but I’m afraid to try it because I’m not sure Windows 10 will LET ME!
The problem might be a loose connection or a broken touchpad, these solutions work for software problems.
I have a new windows 10 computer and have been searching for several hours for a way to turn off the touch pad. Your f9 approach works!!! Thanks.
Glad to hear. Wish you have a nice day!
None of these worked. The FN F7 key blacked out my screen. I have a Dell Latitude D820 Laptop, running Windows 7 XP. I hate the fact that I can’t disable this stupid touch pad. None of the things I was told to look for exist on my computer. Is there anything I can do? Flinging this thing in the back yard seems to be an option right now:(
Betsy
Hi Betsy. You can try disable touchpad related services in Windows Services (Launch Run> services.msc> double click related services> Disable). Also, you can disable related devices in Device Manager.
I had the same problem following method three (which is also described on several forums). Eventually I discovered my touchpad driver was a generic PS2. The original Synaptics driver had disappeared. ( I suspect during a fix for something else). I found a replacement driver here http://synaptics.com/resources and installed it. Lo and behold method 3 above now works and has lots of touchpad tweaks. There are drivers at the link above from MS XP right up to Win 10.
Hi, John. Thank you for your comment. Have a nice day!
I have tryed all the methods and none of them work I have a hp windows 7 upgrade. I need to disable my mouse
I have to face the same problem on some days and I found this post.I am very helpful to read this article and i solve my all problem related this issue.