Windows 10: Please, please!! How do I disable the touchpad when a mouse is connected?

I'm being driven absolutely mad with my cursor moving all over the screen as I type. There used to be a setting to disable touchscreen when mouse is connected. Now that option is gone. I've even gone into settings and control panel to uninstall the touchpad. When I restart the computer, it simply reinstalls the driver and the touchpad continues to get in my way. This is absolutely an untenable situation! Please provide a resolution! Thank you very much. I selected Windows 10, but it's the same in Windows 11.

:)

 

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

 

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.

 

disable touchpad

Hi Donna,

Disabling touchpad will depend on the make and model of your Laptop. Some models would have its own button that would allow you to disable/enable the touchpad from the keyboard. Other models would also have settings from its own driver software that would
allow you to toggle it on/off. Since you've mentioned that your laptop is Dell, may we know the specific model?

However, if you have other pointing device to connect on your laptop (like a mouse), you can disable the touchpad through Windows settings by following these steps:

• On your keyboard, press Windows + I.
• Click Devices.
• Choose Touchpad.
• Uncheck Leave touchpad on when a mouse is connected.

After performing the steps above, your touchpad will be disabled until you disconnect the other pointing device.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Regards.