This question was asked by many. And the point is not that working with a mouse is much more convenient. It's just that if there is a mouse, then the touchpad is no use. It only uselessly absorbs energy. In addition, it is very inconvenient to type with the touchpad turned on. One wrong move, and all the work can go down the drain. Therefore, you need to be able to disable the touchpad on the laptop. There are many ways to do this. And we will consider them all. For not every method will fit a specific device. We also consider options for disabling the touchpad for various operating systems.
What is a touchpad?
The touchpad is the same touchpad that replaces the mouse in laptops. It is necessary to use it only when it is absolutely impossible to connect the mouse to the laptop. There are many reasons for this: there are no free ports or there is no possibility to use the mouse due to lack of space. In any case, the touchpad comes to the rescue. It has a bunch of useful features. Even though using it is not quite convenient.
The functions supported by the standard touchpad include gestures, multi-touch, multi-finger scrolling support. The touch panel is a multifunctional device, although not very convenient. Therefore, most users tend to use the mouse as the main working tool. Therefore, it will be useful to know how to disable the touchpad on a laptop. Different laptops have their own characteristics. So, let's begin.
Laptops from Lenovo
These laptops are characterized by good technical characteristics and a decent level of performance. It goes without saying that in such laptops there are hot keys for disabling this or that equipment. There are buttons to turn off Wi-Fi, display, multimedia keys. Naturally, there is also a touchpad off button. Of course, the key combination may vary from model to model. But on each key there are icons that display a particular device.
In most laptops from the Chinese, the touchpad is turned off by pressing Fn + F6. The final key may change, but the functional Fn remains unchanged. Here's how to disable the touchpad on a Lenovo laptop . However, hotkeys do not always work. Especially if you use the tenth version of the operating system from Microsoft. With this brainchild of Satya Nadella will have to tinker. But this will be written below. Now let's move on to other laptops.
HP Notebook PCs
The products of this American company are well known in our country. Laptops are famous for their features, workmanship and affordable prices. These devices also have functional buttons that allow you to easily turn off certain components of the laptop. So how do I disable the touchpad on my HP laptop? In the same way as the Lenovo. Only the keyboard shortcut is different.
If your laptop does not have a touchpad disable key, then you can do such a “feint with your ears”: tap twice on the upper left corner of the touchpad. In some models, it turns off that way. In any case, even if this does not help, then a little lower you will learn how to disable the touchpad using the operating system. These are the features of HP laptops, and you won’t do anything about it. Will have to adjust. Fortunately, this is not difficult.
ASUS laptops
The products of this company are also popular, but, unlike previous laptops, these are not always all right with cooling. However, despite this, laptops scatter like hot cakes. So, how to disable the touchpad on an ASUS laptop? Answer: using the keyboard shortcut Fn + F9. The combination may change somewhat, but it certainly is. If the images are erased on your keys, then you can select the desired combination using the "scientific poke" method. Usually helps.
It is worth noting that this method of turning off the touchpad is only suitable if the laptop has the necessary drivers for the touchpad to work properly. But it's not always the case. How to disable the touchpad on a laptop, Windows 7 using? If there are no drivers? Let's try to solve this problem.
Laptops with Windows 7
If the laptop has seven on board, the drivers for the touchpad are not installed, and you need to disable it by all means, then you can try the following. We go to the "Device Manager", open the tab "Mice and other pointing devices." This may be a snag. It is not known how the touchpad will be signed. Most likely there will be something like “PS / 2 device”. Turn it off. If something is wrong, then that's okay. It can always be turned back on.
With Windows 7, everything is more or less clear. The same principle of work will be in the eight. However, there is another “newfangled” operating system in which it is not so simple. It is called Windows 10. And how do I disable the touchpad on a laptop using Windows 10? The answer will be contained below.
Laptops with the top ten on board
To begin with, the “ten” automatically installs some left-handed drivers on the touchpad. Moreover, manufacturers are in no hurry to release software updates for their devices under Win 10. What then is to be done? In this case, we will use the method from Windows 7. Through the "Device Manager". But the trouble is that in the "top ten" even the device manager is hidden, the devil knows where. Therefore, we do the following.
Open the "Start" menu, look for the "Run" item. Enter the phrase devmgmt.msc in the string. Our favorite device manager will open. Here we are already looking for "Mouse and other pointing devices" and repeat the actions that were performed for the seven. So you can disable the touchpad on an ASUS laptop using Windows 10. Yes, a lot of trouble. But who said it would be easy? Especially with the "top ten."
Linux family of operating systems
Everything is simple and clear here. On some distributions, hotkeys do not work. How to disable the touchpad on a laptop in this case? Very simple. We go to the settings, look for the item "Mouse and touch panel" and move the slider, which disables the touch panel. All. But not all distributions are so simple. This method is suitable for the operating systems "Ubuntu" and "Mint."
In the case of “Arch” and “Fedora” everything is a little more complicated. Here you will need to make some manipulations in the terminal. But such systems are not used by newcomers on laptops. And the professionals themselves are well aware of what needs to be done in such cases. The ease of management of mass distributions of Linux-like operating systems is one of their main advantages.
For those with Hackintosh
There are fans of the illegal installation of MacOS on ordinary laptops using all kinds of "crutches." They also need to know how to disable the touchpad on a laptop. Everything is simple here. Since both “Mac” and “Ubuntu” are “unix-like” operating systems, the method from “Ubuntu” is also suitable for “Hakintosh”. But to put the "Mac" on ordinary laptops can only true "gourmets." For picking up components so that they work without the minimum number of “crutches” is impossible in laptops. They have always been and will be problematic in this regard. Personal computers are another matter.
We go to the settings, look for "Mouse and Touchpad" and move the slider on the touchpad to the "Off" position. Everything is as simple as two and two. Another reason to switch from the buggy and incomprehensible Windows to a normal, adequate system. This is one way to disable. For the owners of Hackintosh you can offer another option - completely remove from the system "kext", which is responsible for the touchpad. The measure is radical, but one hundred percent.
Conclusion
Now you know everything about how to disable the touchpad on a laptop. It makes no difference which laptop, what features it has and what operating system it is installed in. All actions, in essence, are similar. The differences are only in the nuances. Worst of all owners of laptops with Windows 10 on board. Everything is so confusing there that it’s very difficult for a beginner to understand without help. But nothing. Eyes are afraid, but hands are doing. With the "top ten" we also figured out. By the way, you can enable touchpads with the same key combination. Now you all know that. So go ahead, experiment. Just don't get carried away. And then hang the system by chance.