One of the things that you find very difficult to get used to when you move from that “stuck-next-to-the-fridge” Desktop computer to a “carry-anywhere” Laptop is the Touchpad. Laptop touchpads, as you know, are designed to replace your mouse entirely. Instead of moving around your mouse, you have a fully integrated touchpad where you just have to move your finger around to reach anywhere on your screen. But sometimes it’s not easy to get around within that space, and you would still want that old mouse back.

Most of the computer operating systems (Windows, MAC, Linux, etc.) has the functionality to automatically adapt an external USB mouse once you plug it, and you can start using it directly. But it’s always desirable to have the touchpad disabled in that case. Sometimes by accident your hand can touch the touchpad and place the cursor somewhere else, which could be a hectic thing to cope with if you do not look at your screen often while typing. Also, in some cases, if your touchpad is too sensitive, you would see your cursor moving erratically, which makes it all the more difficult, making you want to get back to the good old mouse.

How do I turn off the Touch Pad?

1) One of the first things to do – check the user manual which came along with your laptop. Some laptops such as Dell makes use of the function key combinations (Fn+F5) while others like HP has an option to disable or enable the touchpad by holding the top-left corner of the touchpad for a few seconds.
2) Depending on your operating system, you would also find an icon in your computer system tray where you can manage various touchpad settings.

3) Open Device Manager (Click Start > Run, type devmgmt.msc). Expand Mice and Other Pointing Devices, right click and disable the Touchpad entry. (You might not see this option unless you connect a mouse).

4) Want to get rid of it completely? Disable it in BIOS. General way to reach BIOS in a Windows machine is to Press F8 when you start up your computer. The steps for disabling this in your BIOS varies between systems. One of the options usually provided by laptop vendors is to have the touchpad automatically disable once you connect an external USB mouse.

(Image courtesy: Anonymous Account)