How to disable touchpad on laptop

[enderlord99]

All the instructions I could find online required clicking on an option that was either missing or greyed-out. I eventually found one that said I could make the "device" option stop being greyed out if I updated my drivers. I tried that, and I just received a message that the drivers were already up-to-date; the option remained greyed-out and unclickable.

I then tried uninstalling the touchpad's driver; it still works, and I still don't want it to.

[Jasdoif]

My first guess would be seeing if you can disable the touchpad in the BIOS, when the laptop is starting up.

[Misery Esquire]

Control Panel > Mouse > Hardware tab > select the inbuilt option, then hit Properties > the General tab of the properties should have a Change Settings button, which will have a Disable option either on the first tab or the Drivers tab.

You may need to be on the admin account.

Other than that... It's probably a cursed laptop. Nothing can save you now. I'm not sure. It's how I've always disabled my touchpads.

Also; if the above doesn't work, what operating system are you on, and what maker/model is the laptop itself?

[enderlord99]

Control Panel > Mouse > Hardware tab > select the inbuilt option, then hit Properties > the General tab of the properties should have a Change Settings button, which will have a Disable option either on the first tab or the Drivers tab.I followed the instructions. As I mentioned earlier, the "Disable" option was greyed out, and clicking it did nothing.

You may need to be on the admin account.I'm on the only account the laptop has at all. It's my laptop. How do I get admin privileges when there's noone around to give them?

EDIT: The blue-and-yellow shield-thingy has never required more than a "Yes" when I've done other things that require it, so apparently I am an admin; the option is greyed out and unclickable anyway.

[Algeh]

I'm going to go ahead and ask the obvious: do you have a mouse plugged in?

I've set up my last several laptops to disable the touchpad as long as a mouse is connected, and the touchpad works again if I unplug the mouse. I could imagine such an option being grayed out if you don't have a mouse plugged in while you're poking around.

[snowblizz]

I'm going to go ahead and ask the obvious: do you have a mouse plugged in?

I've set up my last several laptops to disable the touchpad as long as a mouse is connected, and the touchpad works again if I unplug the mouse. I could imagine such an option being grayed out if you don't have a mouse plugged in while you're poking around.

My thought exactly. The system won't want you to disable one of the major inputs.


Now another question I want to ask is why do you want to disable the touchpad? Because I am 70% certain what you really want to do is disabling tap/touch-to-click functionality. Should be rather easy in Win10. The funny part is when I did I eventually had to go back because it became inconvenient not to be able to, despite the often random moving cursory I experience when I accidentally swipe the touchpad.

[Iruka]

All laptops I have come with the option right on the keyboard. Is there a touchpad-like symbol on one of the keys?

[Erloas]

Yes, most, if not all, laptops have a keyboard shortcut to enable/disable the touchpad. It is almost always on one of the F keys, so FN (function) + whichever key it is.

[enderlord99]

F1 is "help"
F2 is "lower screen brightness"
F3 is "raise screen brightness"
F4 is something to do with connecting to external monitors
F5 is "toggle keyboard backlighting"
F6 is "mute"
F7 is "lower volume"
F8 is "raise volume"
F9 is "rewind"
F10 is "play/pause"
F11 is "fast forward"
F12 is "airplane mode"
There is no F13+ present in hardware.

The laptop is an "HP ENVY x360" purchased from Costco, running Windows 10.

I can't disable it from BIOS because I would need another device to display the instructions on, and I don't have that.

[georgie_leech]

The laptop is an "HP ENVY x360" purchased from Costco, running Windows 10.

I can't disable it from BIOS because I would need another device to display the instructions on, and I don't have that.

Do the directions on this forum post (https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Hardware-and-Upgrade-Questions/How-do-I-disable-the-trackpad-on-my-HP-Envy-x360-15t/td-p/6980583) help? Either the official answer or the one provided by another user below?

[Algeh]

I can't disable it from BIOS because I would need another device to display the instructions on, and I don't have that.

You could write the instructions down on a piece of paper, which you would then have while messing with the BIOS on the computer.

[snowblizz]

You could write the instructions down on a piece of paper, which you would then have while messing with the BIOS on the computer.

Except OP clearly should *not* be messing about BIOS/UEFI since they are more likely to mess it up than anything.

Not meant as an offence, but really, if you have to be told how/that you can change it in BIOS you shouldn't be doing it.

[monomer]

One question I have is concerning the TouchPad driver. Are you using a generic touchpad driver, or do you have the HP driver installed? I would recommend going to the HP site and download the most recent touchpad driver which includes the HP user interface. I don't use HP myself, but you may be able to disable the touchpad from within the HP touchpad interface.