Disable Touchpad or Reduce Interference While Typing

April 24, 2011 -- Scenario: When you type on your laptop or notebook keyboard, the cursor occasionally moves eradically across the screen, leaps around, or jumps to another paragraph. This happens even when you use an external mouse.

Likely situation: Perhaps more so if you are a touch typist, while you type your palm may occasionally come in contact with your Touchpad (a.k.a. Trackpad) which causes the mouse pointer to move.

Possible solutions: Whether you use an an external pointing device (most likely a mouse), or use your built-in Touchpad, you may have multiple options depending on your particular model of laptop, notebook, or netbook.

For instance, my HP Compaq laptop has an on/off switch for the Touchpad. Simply turn off the Touchpad when not needed. Normally this would only be reasonable when using an external mouse.

Depending on the model of the Touchpad and the version of driver software installed, you may have other options.

With the example of the Synaptics Pointing Device (Touchpad) interface shown below (accessed via Control Panel : Mouse), it is possible to select to "Disable internal pointing device when external USB pointing device is attached". Of course, if you never use the Touchpad, you could simply Disable the device -- just remember to always keep a working mouse handy.

In the example below, it is possible to select the Settings for the Synaptics Pointing Device, and then select Pointing : Sensitiviity : PalmCheck. The PalmCheck feature guards against accidental contact with the Touchpad by recognizing when your palm is resting on it or brushing its surface while you are typing.

Finally, if none of the above options are available to you, install a program such as Touchpad Blocker. This free program automatically disables mouse clicks and accidental brushes of the Touchpad while you are typing. Installation is easy and initially you can accept the program defaults.

Happy typing!

--MLJ