How to Disable Touchpad on HP Laptop? Although the touchpad allows us to interact with the operating system at our fingertips, sometimes it can be downright troublesome. This is true, especially when using the keyboard and your palm accidentally comes into contact with the touchpad, causing the cursor to move to a different location.
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Disabling the touchpad can be very useful in such scenarios, especially when you already have a physical mouse connected to your laptop and you don’t want any unexpected touchpad input. Thus, I have compiled several ways to disable the touchpad on your HP laptop.
Disable Touchpad on HP Laptop Via Laptops Built-in Functions
Disabling the touchpad on an HP laptop is simple enough: Just double-click the light on one corner of the mouse pad.
On some HP models, there may be a curved bulge on the touchpad. Double-tab this recessed bump to disable the touchpad. The light should be on, indicating that the touchpad is locked.
Also, check if any of the function keys at the top of the keyboard have a crossed-out trackpad icon like the one shown in the picture. If so, press the Fn key + the strikethrough touchpad icon key.
When disabled, you should see a crossed-out touchpad icon on the screen, indicating that the touchpad is disabled.
Some HP laptops may not have the recessed LED or bump in the corner, or they may not even have a key to disable the touchpad. In such cases, you can try to disable the touchpad from Windows Settings.
Disable Touchpad Via Windows Settings
Windows allows you to change settings for built-in devices such as the camera, microphone, and touchpad through Windows Settings. So, you can easily disable the touchpad through Windows settings.
- Press Windows key + I.
- In Settings, go to Bluetooth & devices > Touchpad.
- Here, disable the touchpad.
- If you want to disable the touchpad when the mouse is connected to the laptop, click the Touchpad drop-down menu.
- Leave Touchpad unselected when the mouse is connected.
Via Mouse Properties
Alternatively, you can also disable the touchpad through the mouse properties. However, these settings may not be available on all HP laptops. You can do this only by installing Synaptics Touchpad Driver on an HP laptop.
- Press Windows key + R.
- Here type main.cpl and press Enter.
- Once the Mouse Properties window opens, go to the Touchpad or Device Settings tab.
- Click Disable.
- You can also disable the touchpad when a mouse is connected by disabling the internal pointing device when an external USB pointing device is connected.
- Click on Apply, then click on OK.
Disable Touchpad Via Device Manager
Device Manager contains information about all the devices connected to the motherboard. And with this you can also disable the touchpad.
When you disable the touchpad from Device Manager, you cannot access its settings in Windows Settings.
- Press the Windows and X keys together and open Device Manager.
- Expand human interface devices.
- Double-click the HID-compatible touchpad and go to the Driver tab.
- If you can’t find the touchpad driver in Human Interface Devices, go to Mice and other pointing devices > Synaptics PS/2 port touchpads and go to the Drivers tab.
- Select Disable Device.
- Click Yes when it asks for confirmation.
Disable the Touchpad Via BIOS Settings
BIOS records all the hardware components connected to the motherboard and allows users to modify its properties. In our case, you can use it to disable the touchpad.
- Shut down the PC completely.
- Turn on the PC and press the F10 key several times to enter the BIOS on the HP laptop.
- Go to the Advanced tab and set Internal Pointing Device to Disabled.
- If you don’t have this option, select the Built-in device option.
- Here, uncheck Touchpad.
When you disable the touchpad from the BIOS, the motherboard won’t use it. This means that the operating system will not detect the touchpad and you can only re-enable it from the BIOS.