About Gary Housknecht Expertise common keyboard shortcuts; internet keyboard functionality; use shift key to undo caps lock; reassign key functions; wireless keyboard questions
Experience 10+ years PC software and hardware tech support.
Expert: Gary Housknecht Date: 11/30/2004 Subject: touchpad mouse
Question First, many thanks for providing info for everyone. Too needed these days. I have a laptop which has worked really well for me apart from the touchpad. I cannot figure how to turn the function off. It is very irratating when I am trying to type and my palms move the mouse and so on. Plus more often these days it behaves irraticaly dragging itself off in any direction. Sometimes this can be sorted by applying pressure around the it. I am using XP pro. can you help. Regards,
Paul
Answer If you are familiar with the Device Manager under "System" in Control Panel, you can try searching for the touchpad under "Input Devices" or elsewhere, but you may not find it. If you do, just open the device and disable it. But the bad news is that the touchpad is an odd anomoly classed somewhere between a mouse and the keyboard and others have had a hard time locating the specific device to disable it.
Use a search engine like Google and try "touchpad disable" or something like that. You are likely to find the solution in one of the links. I don't presently have a laptop so I can't remember for sure how to do it. It can be done, though. If you figure it out, let me know and I'll pass it on to others that may ask.
