How to turn your laptop touchpad off/on

Updated: April 05, 2023
6 min read
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How to turn your laptop touchpad off/on
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by Mykola Diakun
Tech Expert & Writer
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Quality Control team

Abolish any inconveniences when turning your laptop touchpad off or on. If you constantly face problems when turning on the touchpad or if you are annoyed by the constant involuntary touching of the touchpad, this article is just for you.

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Those who do business on the Internet or are involved with computers may face laptop touchpad problems. The most annoying of these is the constant touching of the laptop touchpad while typing. This issue can sometimes cause typing mistakes or even make you close programs. It is possible to get rid of this problem by canceling the laptop mouse and continuing with an external mouse. At the end of the article, we have also included the instructions on how to enable the laptop touchpad in case of emergency after turning it off.

Laptop touchpad shutdown process on Windows 10 & Windows 7

Not all laptops allow disabling the laptop touchpad with the function key. If your laptop is the one that allows such an option, try pressing the specific key in conjunction with the FN (usually between F1, F2, and F3). If it is not possible to disable it with the function key, you can go to the control panel and follow a few steps. Below we’ve described how to disable the laptop mouse from the Windows 10 or Windows 7 control panel:

How to Turn Laptop Touchpad Off/On
  1. Press the Start button and type "Device Manager" in the search field.
  2. After clicking on the "Device Manager" button, select "Mouse and other pointing devices" among the listed devices.
  3. From here, right-click on a device that is labeled "Touchpad", click on the "Disable device" button and say "Yes" to the prompt that appears.

Laptop touchpad unlocking on Windows 10 & Windows 7

Using FN (Function key) is the easiest way to manage the laptop touchpad. If you have tried the F1, F2, and F3 key combinations with the FN key but failed, you can try the steps below. If it is impossible to do this with an external mouse, use the TAB, ENTER, etc. keys of the keyboard.

  1. Type "Device Manager" in the Windows 10 or 7 search box.
  2. Click on the first result. From the listed devices, click on "Mouse and other pointing devices".
  3. Right-click on the device to turn on the inactive touchpad.
  4. In the menu that opens, click on "Activate device". After confirming the action, the touchpad will be active.

Conclusion

Your laptop may have or lack a separate button that is responsible for turning the touchpad off or on. If you find it difficult to open the device manager every time, you can also use third-party software designed to take up the touchpad function.

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