Windows 10: disable touchpad single click when external mouse is connected

Hi,I've seen a million give or take solutions to disabling the touchpad when I have a mouse connected. Those work, but are not really what I am looking for.I ONLY want to disable the one-finger single-click aspect of the touchpad if my external mouse is connected. That way I can prevent all the accidental clicks from my thumbs hitting the touchpad while I'm typing, but still take advantage of the various gesture options like zoom, scroll, etc.I've been trying unsuccessfully for the last decade or so to train my thumbs to hover, but sometimes they get lazy and forget. This is particularly a

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Disable Touchpad and use External mouse

Hi,

Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.

I understand that you want to disable the TouchPad of your laptop and want to use an external USB mouse.

To use an external USB mouse, please connect the USB mouse to any USB port on your laptop and it will be set up automatically.

To disable the touchpad you can try the following steps and check if that helps:

1. Press and hold Windows + X key on the keyboard.
   
2. Select Device manager from the list.
   
3. Expand Mice and other pointing devices.
   
4. Find Synaptics SMBus TouchPad/ELANClickpad touchpad.
   
5. Right click on the driver and select Disable.
   

Hope it helps.

Please reply with the status of the issue, we will be glad to help you further.

Nikhar Khare

Microsoft Community - Moderator

 

Disabling trackpad when external mouse is active

I have an ASUS laptop running Win10. The touchpad gestures sometimes accidentally activate and make a hash of my typing. I wish to use an external mouse and disable trackpad automatically when that mouse is active. Your advice says:

1. Go to Settings.
2. Select Ease of Access.
3. Click Touchpad.
4. Under Touchpad, toggle the switch on or off.
5. You can also uncheck the box beside Leave touchpad on the when a mouse is connectedoption to disable it when you use a traditional mouse.

Once done with the steps above, check if the issue will persist.



As you no doubt know, these instructions are WRONG. There is no toggle switch under touchpad, and no option to toggle touchpad off when using external mouse.

I allow WIN10 to update. It is updated.

So what is the secret? And why is it a secret?

 

disable touchpad

Hi James,

Touchpad is usually disabled and re-enabled by pressing the Fn and either
F3 or F9 keys, but that depends on the laptop that you have. Each brand have its own shortcut keys. However, you can disable the touchpad from the Settings page. Follow these steps:

1. Open Settings > Devices.
2. In the left pane, click Touchpad.
3. To completely disable the touchpad, toggle off Touchpad.
4. If you only want to disable the touchpad when an external mouse is connected, check the box for
   Leave touchpad on when a mouse is connected option.

Let me know if you need further help so I can assist you.

Regards.