On certain occasions, disabling the touchscreen bring some advantages. In this article, you’ll learn how to turn off the touch screen in Windows 10.
Today, a lot of computers and laptops are equipped with touch screen displays. You can use a touch screen on a laptop as an input device, just like you do on a regular tablet or cellphone.
Windows 10 design interface works well with a touchscreen in laptop or tablet mode.
It is up to your preference to use the screen as a primary or secondary input device on your laptop computer. Windows 10 allows using touch screen display as both keyboard and mouse device.
But what if we want to disable the touch screen? A touchscreen can be a hindrance if you’re displaying a presentation or working on your laptop while your kids are around.
You can also increase the battery time of your device by disabling the touchscreen feature.
In this article, we’ll show you a set of accessible and awesome methods on how you can disable your touch screen functionality in Windows 10.
So, if you want to turn off that feature on your computer, you have come to the right place.
Table of Contents
How to turn off the touch screen in Windows 10
Using Services
If you want to disable the touch screen for a permanent or more extended period of time, you need to perform the following steps:
- Open the Start Menu and type “Services“. Open it;
- Now search for “Touch keyboard and handwriting panel service” and double click on it;
- Click on Startup type and choose “Disabled” from the drop-down menu;
- Next, navigate to “Services” status and click “Stop“;
- Now when it is stopped, click on Apply and Ok.
Note: This method permanently disables your touch screen display.
To enable touch screen display, navigate to the same “Touch keyboard and handwriting panel service” through services.
Click again on Startup type and select “manual/automatic” from the drop-down menu. Now click on Apply and Ok.
Using Windows Registry
Another method to permanently disable touch screens is through Windows 10 Registry. To disable the touch screen using Windows Registry, perform the following steps:
- Press the “Windows key + R” to open the Run prompt;
- Type “Regedit ” in the search bar next to open registry editor and press Enter;
- Double click on “Computer” to expand and again double click on “HKEY_CURRENT_USER“;
- A new list of options expands. Navigate to the following path by double-clicking on each option as explained above:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER?Software?Microsoft?Wisp? Touch
- Now right click on “Touch” in the left window pane and go to “New? DWORD (32-bit) value“;
- A new DWORD (32-bit) entry appears in your right window pane. Rename it to “Touchgate“;
- Now double click on this entry to open the edit dialogue box. Here you can edit both name and value for this entry. Enter “0” (zero) in the Value data box and keep the base as hexadecimal;
- Now click “Ok” and restart your device.
Note: As your device restarts after the change, you will notice that the touch input will be disabled. To enable it again, you need to repeat the same process. Simply open registry editor on your laptop and navigate to the path
Computer? HKEY_CURRENT_USER?Software?Microsoft?Wisp? Touch.
Now you can take two actions to enable touchscreen. First, you can either change the value of Touchgate entry from 0 to 1 by double-clicking on it. Otherwise, you can simply delete the Touchgate entry and enable touchscreen again.
Using Device Manager
- Open the Start Menu and type Device Manager. Open it;
- The Device Manager window opens. Now locate the Human Interface Devices option and click on an arrow on its left side to expand;
- Then, find the HID-compliant touch screen device option from expanded options and right-click on it;
- A pop-up window appears. Click on “Disable“:
- A new pop-up window appears with the message “disabling this device will cause it to stop functioning. Do you really want to disable it?” Click “Yes” to proceed with disabling the touchscreen.
Note: You can enable the touch screen feature by repeating the same process and selecting the “Enable “option by right-clicking your touch screen name.
Another important thing is that this disabling method sometimes works momentarily and will disable the touchscreen only when you are using the device.
It means that if you shut down your device, it will reverse your setting and again enable the touch screen.
If your touch screen is enabled but not working correctly, you can try two methods.
The first is to clean your touchscreen and remove any sort of impurities or dirt. Dirt particles or dust may disturb the touch feature.
Another possible reason behind touch screen lagging could be an old touchscreen driver software.
To solve this, keep updating your touchscreen driver through your computer manufacturer’s website. Sometimes, Windows Updates also update drivers.
How to calibrate touch screen in Windows 10
If the above methods didn’t work for you, you can try to calibrate your touch screen. To perform it on Windows 10, take the following steps:
- Open the Start Menu and type “Control Panel” and then open it;
- In the Control Panel window, type “Tablet PC settings” in the find bar and click it;
- In the Tablet PC settings dialogue box, go to the “Display” tab, and under “Display options“, you can find the “Calibrate” option. Click on it;
- Now follow the lead and instructions that appear on your screen. It would be best to press the crosshair icon on the screen whenever it displays on your screen.
Note: If any of these methods do not work and your touch screen is still lagging, it may be due to a physical issue and need to be addressed by a good computer or laptop technician.
Wrap up
To disable the touchscreen feature, it does not matter which device you use.
Whether it is a laptop or desktop computer, tablet, or a 2-in-1 device; Windows 10 allows to disable touch input in all models ranging from Dell to Lenovo.
However, all these methods are manual and need to be performed all over again when you want to enable the touch screen again.
Note that many users report that the Device Manager method works once only.
If you want to disable the touchscreen feature permanently, you need to either use the services method or edit the touch registry through Windows Registry.
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