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lattitude e5550: How to enable touchpad when I don't have a mouse available
I have a lattitude e5550. I normally have my touchpad disabled, to avoid the jumping cursor issue.
Sometimes, however, I want to have the touchpad enabled, in case I am traveling, take my laptop with me, but not a mouse. How to enable the touchpad then?
There appears no keyboard shortcut available for ENABLING a disabled touchpad.
On other Dell laptops, I found that Fn-F3 can do the disabling and enabling, but not on e5550.
It seems it is only possible via the Mouse configuration, but these cannot be accessed, when touchpad is disabled and one doesn't have a mouse.
How to get around this?
DELL-Hemalatha
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November 11th, 2015 03:00
Hi,
I would say, the only way is to create a touchpad shortcut icon on Desktop and by using the keyboard navigation keys i.e. tab, arrows etc, you can enable the touchpad.
Its going to be a maze though for some time.
Regards
kirkd
5.2K Posts
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November 11th, 2015 21:00
Many pad drivers have a setting that will disable the pad when a mouse is plugged in, and enable when removed. Have you tried TouchFreeze to tame the pad. It disables the pad when you begin typing, and enables when you stop. Most cursir jumping is related to a too sensitive pad, which can be reduced in sensitivity in the driver. Most jumping is related to dangling fingers. An overly sensitive pad does not need to be even touched to move the cursor. Just getting close can cause it to move.
mgpmul
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November 15th, 2015 01:00
@KirkD:
Thank you for suggesting TouchFreeze. Still, it looks like a design flaw that that is no way to control the touchpad when it is disabled and one has no mouse availabe.
mgpmul
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November 15th, 2015 01:00
@Dell-Hema:
The 'Dell Touchpad settings' window is not controllable by keyboard navigation keys like tab.
So, I don't see how this solves my problem.
mgpmul
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November 15th, 2015 02:00
Meanwhile, I found the answer to my question myself:
In the Dell Touchpad Settings, there is an option 'Enable Touchpad by Zig Zag gesture'. When enabled, one can make a zig-zag movement on the disabled touchpad and it will be enabled again.
The setting is a bit hidden, but one can find it here, once the Dell Touchpad Settings is open:
Select Touchpad > Sensitivity > Tapping > Enable Touchpad by Zig Zag gesture
Nice idea, but it's a pitty that the old Fn-Function key combination (or an other hardware button) has been discarded for this.
It's so handy to have a quick on-off control for the Touchpad.
I hope Dell re-implements the keyboard control (or any other hardware button) in their laptops.