# Disable touchpad on Vista notebook?



## spartanstew

My 70 year old father recently purchased an Acer laptop (during the Walmart Surprise sale a couple of weeks ago). He's been having trouble with the cursor jumping on him, so I told him he needed to disable the touchpad, since he uses a wireless mouse anyway.

Now, on XP, it's very simple. When in the mouse properties, there's actually a checkbox for "disable touchpad when external mouse is connected". Apparently on Vista (which he has), there's no such option. 

Over the phone, I tried walking him through every scenario I could think of to find a way to deactivate it, but to no avail.

Is anyone familiar with Vista? Is there a way to deactivate the touchpad?

Thanks.


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## BaldEagle

Same thing on Vista. Start/Control Panel (click on classic view)/Mouse (properties box opens)/Drive Settings/ Then highlight "Synaptics Touchpad" and click on disable.


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## Greg Alsobrook

seems unlikely in this situation... just thought i'd throw it out there though... but a lot of new laptops are coming with a button right above the touchpad that disables it...


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## spartanstew

BaldEagle said:


> Same thing on Vista. Start/Control Panel (click on classic view)/Mouse (properties box opens)/Drive Settings/ Then highlight "Synaptics Touchpad" and click on disable.


There is no drive settings tab. I was able to access click on the Hardward tab and from there double click on the touchpad which opened a settings box. However, once there the option to disable the touchpad is grayed out.


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## 4DThinker

You might be able to open the device manager, right click on the touch pad device, and then select "disable".

4D


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## BaldEagle

spartanstew said:


> There is no drive settings tab. I was able to access click on the Hardward tab and from there double click on the touchpad which opened a settings box. However, once there the option to disable the touchpad is grayed out.


Same with mine until I selected the touchpad by clicking on it.


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## perrism

spartanstew said:


> Is anyone familiar with Vista? Is there a way to deactivate the touchpad?


The Acer's touchpad driver can't be disabled within Control Panel on Vista, as you've discovered, but you should be able to disable the touchpad on any recent-model Acer laptop by pressing and holding 'Fn' (lower-left of keyboard) and 'F7'.

I hope this helps.


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## gwodus

perrism said:


> The Acer's touchpad driver can't be disabled within Control Panel on Vista, as you've discovered, but you should be able to disable the touchpad on any recent-model Acer laptop by pressing and holding 'Fn' (lower-left of keyboard) and 'F7'.
> 
> I hope this helps.


I was also looking for a solution to that. Thanks! That was exactely what I was looking for. Right in front of my eyes. :sunsmile:


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## hardywest

I can disable by using Fn and F7, but it is not permanent and goes back after a little while....


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## rudeney

spartanstew said:


> There is no drive settings tab. I was able to access click on the Hardward tab and from there double click on the touchpad which opened a settings box. However, once there the option to disable the touchpad is grayed out.


You need to download and install the latest Synaptics Touchpad drivers for Vista. The easiest way to get them is on the Dell website, using their support options and entering your service tag.


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## spartanstew

1. It's not a Dell.
2. I solved the problem over a year ago.


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## deltafowler

Time travel is cool!:lol:

Hey, could one of you go back to last Spring and give me a heads up on this whole market/economy meltdown crash cluster&%$* thing?

Better use PM. We don't want to cause a panic.


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## rudeney

spartanstew said:


> 1. It's not a Dell.
> 2. I solved the problem over a year ago.


Good grief! Why did I think it was a Dell??? And why did I not notice the poster above me resurrected this old thread? :eek2:


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