Windows: Switch off touchpad automatically
With most laptops, you can automatically switch off the touchpad under Windows if you connect an external input device. We'll show you how this works using the Synaptics drivers.
Turn off the touchpad automatically - how it works
Most laptops work with pads that run with the Synaptics driver. This includes a separate option that allows your touchpad to switch itself off if you connect a USB mouse. Unfortunately, Synaptics has disabled this option on some models. We show you the conventional way and how you can still activate the feature:
- Open the Control Panel and click on "Mouse" in the "Hardware and Sound" subitem.
- In the tab on the far right, you must now tick the box next to "Disable internal pointing device when external pointing device is attached"
- Confirm with OK". If you restart your PC, the feature is then active.
Synaptics: Activate the auto-off feature for the touchpad via the registry
For unknown reasons, this option is not available on all laptops with Synaptics drivers. However, you can activate it later in the registry:
- Press the key combination [WINDOWS] + [R] and type "regedit" into the Run window. Then press "OK".
- Open the path "HKEY_CURRENT_USER / Software / Synaptics / SynTPEnh" in the registry. It is best to make a backup of the "SynTPEnh" folder at this point. To do this, right-click on the folder and select "Export". You can now save the file anywhere.
- Double-click the "DisableIntPDFeature" key and enter "33" (without quotation marks). Leave the base at "Hexadecimal". Confirm with "OK" and restart your PC.
- The checkbox now also appears in your driver settings and you can continue with the first paragraph.
- If there are problems with the registry change, you can restore your backup simply by double-clicking.
We'll also show you how to decrease the touchpad sensitivity.