Windows 10: Help to stop windows 10 search box constantly popping up

I was having the same maddening problem with the Cortana/Search boxes popping up every second, but the following simple steps took care of the problem immediately ... and I haven't seen that window pop up since: Try ... Settings, Devices, Mouse & Touchpad, then turn OFF the "Scroll Inactive Windows when I Hover Over Them" switch. I should probably mention that I am the most inept person when it comes to computer problems and the last person you want to take advice from, but this solution worked for me *Smile

CORRECTION: I had no Search Window pop-up for two days ... but now the problem has returned. *cry I'm regretting not spending the extra $$$ for an Apple.

 

I apologize if I appear to contradict you.
Thing is, I have that setting in On position and I do not have the problems you describe.
I am using a Win 10 Home.

 

My problem was that *sometimes* - on left clicking and tapping (which is how I select text for copying)- the search box popped up.
I've tried everything above - didn't work - but noticed the following.

*If you tap with two fingers, or sometimes just one, THEN left click (in that order) - the search bar pops up (on the left of screen)
*If you tap with three fingers, or sometimes just two THEN left click (in that order) - the action centre pops up (or the right of screen)

I have a Synaptics touchpad with the latest recommended driver.

I think that two finger tap then left click is an undocumented command to open the search box.
And that three finger tap then right click is an undocumented command to open the action centre.
And that sometimes - the touchpad interprets one finger tap as a two finger tap, and sometimes interprets a two finger tap as a three finger one.

My guess is this is a Synaptics problem.

My solutions:
a) To select text, use right click and swipe, OR
b) To select text, tap first then left click.
doing in in that order DOESN'T activate the unwanted popups.

Really frustating as my habit for selecting text of twenty years' standing now doesn't work properly. I hope Synaptics will release a driver one day that fixes this.

BTW the old synaptics driver doesn't have this problem - but is defective in other ways.

 

OK I've found out what the problem is...

The synaptic touchpad on my laptop has the pad and the buttons all on the same surface - the buttons are not separate, but are just a zone at the bottom of the touchpad that you can click. My other laptops all had completely separate buttons.

So the buttons actually perform as part of the touch pad, as well as being buttons.

If I happen to click with two fingers on the button, then tap and swipe some text - the search bar pops up. That's why the problem was intermittent.

So the answer in my case is very simple - just be careful to press the button with only one finger, and not to let a second finger brush on the button.

Solved!

 

DISABLE CORTANA WINDOWS SEARCH

Greetings. After scouring the internet for a solution to disabling the annoying Cortana windows search problem of popping up intermittedly, I resolved to try and fix it on my own. And so I tried the old method of renaming the program folder in question and it worked.

Solution:

GO TO>Windows>SystemApps>Microsoft.Windows.Cortana...
and change the folder name. I changed mine to Microsoft.Windows.SystemApps and so far I haven't had any conflicts, probably because the folder is solely dedicated to the Cortana windows search program.

I can't believe that Microsoft would release a windows system with such an annoying glitch. Especially since they're up against stiff competition with Apple these days.

 

I've figured out what was doing it for me. I've disabled the Notifications About Windows and Cortana's suggestions (detailed in earlier posts, first few pages) and whatnot, but I also had to go into settings and disable the three-finger tap, which also brings up Cortana. When you've got your hand hovering over the touchpad it can be kinda hard not to accidentally do that. Here's how to get to it:

Settings > Devices > Mouse & touchpad > Additional Mouse Options (at bottom) > Device Settings (tab at the right) > Settings... > Tapping (expand dropdown menu) > uncheck Three-Finger Tap.

 

I have had this same problem since I have upgraded to Windows 10. I had this problem solved after updating my Synaptics touchpad drive to its latest version (19.0.19.1). Hope this might help!

 

I just signed up to this forum to offer a possible solution, At least it worked for me.

I did the complete opposite, I rolled back my driver and it worked to no error.

It was literally the most frustrating thing I've come across in quite a while.

 

OMG U ROCK!!! I been trying to click settings w/in the search window, then the person icon, then the bars, and it resets everything as if u want to use that annoying a%$ f*%king pop up search window!! I f#@king hate that mf!!! Sorry, but damn, enough is enough already!!!!

Windows has tried to limit all the things we can actually do on the Win 10 PC by disabling a lotta admin opts, and i had to restore my pc back to oobe, so go fig, i gotta redownload a bunch of s$#t just to get it back on the pc to disable more annoying s!%t they've tried to keep us from doing!

Thank God for Forums.

Peace,

Miranda Fisher!!!

 

Here's how I solved it.

I looked carefully at what I was doing on the laptop touchpad with my fingers/thumbs as the search panel popped up. I found that when I put my left index finger on the left "button" on the touchpad I was accidentally touching my left middle finger on the pad as well. My right index finger was on the pad at the same time too. So the touchpad did some arithmetic and counted - one, two three - fingers. And 3 fingers brings up the search box.

Solution: keep the middle finger of your left hand well off the pad. Problem solved.

Shane

 

I have a HP 15 laptop running Windows 10 with a Synaptics TouchPad V7.5 on port PS/2, and was having the same Search pop up problem and tried many of the hacks to solve it. I finally found that I could trigger the pop up by 'drumming' 4 fingers, one after the other in short succession, on the touch pad. I'm sure some type of momentary brushing of the pad with other fingers/palm was causing it to occur. I spent way too much time with Windows online help whose only suggestion was to discontinue the touch pad. I did try going in to change the driver which eventually opens a dialog box which contains drivers from 2011, and two from 2015. Interestingly, my driver is newer than the one that Synaptics offers as the "latest driver" on their web site, mine is 19.2.4.0 from 11/26/15. I was able to solve the problem by going to Settings, Devices, Mouse and Touchpad, Additional Mouse Options, Device Settings, and then Settings.

This opens the dialog box with the animation and choice of which gestures you want. Opening the Tapping heading shows the two options, Two and Three Finger Tap with I unchecked - making sure that the Tapping heading is still checked or you won't be able to use the tapping function at all, just uncheck the Two and Three Finger Tap options, click Apply and OK, and it fixed it. I have also had problems with the screen changing it's size by zooming in or out on it's own. This I attribute to the Pinch Zoom function located under the MultiFinger Gestures heading and unchecked that one. It would be nice to keep it but not if the screen changes size when I don't want it to. This solved the problem but I'm going to try something different and see if that fixes it but allows me to keep the two finger zoom feature - I turned on the Pinch Zoom feature again and then went to Scrolling and under that Palm Check Enhanced (double click on this) which brings you to a dialog box where you can turn the amount of Palm Check is turned up towards Max, then Close and then hit Apply.



I'm wondering if with more Palm Check assist I won't get the unrequested Zoom in and out but still be able to use the two finger zoom in and out. Hope this helps anyone - make sure you hit apply as many people change settings but forget to hit Apply before hitting OK or Close.

 

Also a tip I have found useful, particularly in the summer - I do a lot of graphics work using the touchpad (haven't yet found a stylus pen that works good) and find that sometimes my finger doesn't slide smoothly affecting my work. I now keep a small bottle cap with a little baking powder (not baking soda) in it that I dip my the pad of my index finger in and wipe off. The pad registers my finger but it glides effortlessly and accurately, important when doing graphics by touchpad input.

 

Mine does not bring up any options about 3 fingers so this does not seem to work for me. I tried clicking off of tapping and apply, but I need to be able to tap. So, still searching for options. This system is so frustrating!

 

I gave a solution that worked for me in post #58, let me paste here again:

Well, I SOLVED in my case. See here:
- I went to regedit (using Windows + R) and found this key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Synaptics\SynTP\Win10\3FingerGestures
- I exported the content (as a backup just in case) and then I deleted all except the Default value.
- It didn't work : ))
- Then I opened the parent key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Synaptics\SynTP\Win10.
- I deleted these values:
"3FingerTapAction"=dword:00000000
"3FingerTapPlugInActionID"=dword:00000061
"3FingerTapPlugInID"="SynTP"
"3FingerPressButtonAction"=dword:00000004
- IT WORKED! *chuckle

Good luck.

 

It works!!!!!!!!!! Thank you so much!!!!!!!