# Solved: Disable touchpad on my Gateway Laptop



## Gibble (Oct 10, 2001)

ARGH! Constantly while typing I brush against it and the cursor moves on me and I end up typing ... who knows where on the screen! In XP I could go in and disable the touchpad, and then re-enable it. Unfortunately, in Vista, when I go to CP->Mouse->Hardware and select the device properties on the "PS/2 Compatible Mouse" (aka the touchpad) the "Disable" button is disabled (how ironically inconvenient)

90% of the time I just want to use my mouse since I'm at a table. But occasionally I do want to be able to turn on the touchpad to use it. So I don't want to uninstall it through Device Manager. I just want to disable it.

Any thoughts. Seriously, why would they disable that button, when you could do it in XP. ARGH! Where was the QA team on this one?

Thanks all.
-C


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## Gibble (Oct 10, 2001)

Anyone


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## Helter23 (May 3, 2007)

try right clicking on your desktop, go to personailze, then click on mouse pointers...then select the devices tab and you should be able to disable the touch pad.


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## Gibble (Oct 10, 2001)

As I explained, the disable button is disabled for the touchpad.


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## DoubleHelix (Dec 10, 2004)

You can disable it in Device Manager. You don't have to uninstall it.


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## Gibble (Oct 10, 2001)

No I can't. When I right click on the touchpad the disable option isn't even there, but on my external mouse, it is and can be disabled.


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## Gibble (Oct 10, 2001)

If it's any help, the model of my laptop is a Gateway mx6708


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## Gibble (Oct 10, 2001)

Any other ideas?


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## Gibble (Oct 10, 2001)

Why didn't I think of installing the Synaptic drivers sooner. That solves it. You can disable the double tap, or the touchpad completely.


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

I believe I posted that in another thread, was that yours too?


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## Gibble (Oct 10, 2001)

nope.


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

You're right, it was someone else, I just found his thread. I obviously didn't see this thread.


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