Disable touchpad on XPS 17

Hello Rgouw, 

Welcome to the Dell community.

If you have windows 7, following are the steps to disable the touchpad.

1. Click the Start button.

2. Now press the Control Panel button.

3. Once the Control Panel screens appears, click the green Hardware and Sound link.

4. Under the Devices and Printers section press the Mouse link.

5. On the mouse properties screen select the Hardware tab. Now highlight the touchpad mouse which is the PS/2 Compatible Mouse and press the Properties button.

6. Now click the Change Settings button at the bottom of the mouse properties screen. When the new mouse properties screen apears select the Drivers tab and then press the Disable button. Windows will now warm you about disabling this device; just click the Yes button.

7. When you return to the mouse properties screen press the OK button. You will now be asked to restart your laptop for the settings to take effect. Press the Yes button and let Windows 7 restart. Upon login into Windows again your touchpad will be disabled.

Tips:

- If your laptop has a Synaptics touchpad then you can disable it by going to the Synaptics tab under the mouse properties.

- Some laptops have a button or function key to disable the touchpad. Make sure to use this method first before following this tutorial.

Let me know if you need anything else

-Niranjan

                                                                                    DELL XPS 17

                                                                      HOW TO DISABLE TOUCHPAD

1. Control Panel (Search --> Mouse)

2. Under the Mouse search header -->

3. Change Mouse Settings -->

4. Mouse Properties -->

5. Device Settings

6. Devices:                                                     Synaptics TouchPadV7.4

7. Disable

You will get the following warning:

You are about to disable the only acive Synaptics pointing device.

8. Hit OK (You can always revert back to using the touchpad by hitting the Enable button)

9. Hit OK to exit the Mouse Properties window. Exit Control Panel.

10. Copy these instructions just in case the touchpad gets "re-enabled".

My wife learned the hard way what can happen with an inadvertent bump to the touchpad.

We bought this computer June 25th 2011 and neither of us have used Win7 before either but

this did work. I haven't been able to find an "official" solution written in an usable step by step

procedure. I had to retrace my steps again today as the touchpad was "re-enabled" (possibly

by an Automatic Software Update?) Thought I would pass this on as the process is not very

intuitive. Win7 seems to be a fine OS but I think I'll stick with Linux. Great computer though.

Best of luck. GBG

Thanks for the suggestion.

However, I don't have a disable option mentioned in step 7 :(

Regards,

Rob

Niranjan,

The disable button in the drivers tab is disabled (?!?!) and therefore I can't disable the touchpad.

I do seem to have a Synaptics touchpad, but there's no synaptics tab on the mouse properties screen :(

However, it appears I can disable the touchpad by pressing Fn-F3 !

Thanks for this tip!

Regards,

Rob

Fn-F3 works to disable the touchpad for me as well.

Why in the world wasn't this "shortcut" documented?

A lot better than trying to manipulate drivers, device

settings, etc...

Thanks Rob!

there is a battery icon on my F3 button, and when I try Fn-F3, nothing seems to happen, and the touchpad still works.  My Disable is also disabled!  

Same issue here. Can't disable touchpad and don't have it as an option in the HW tab....suggestions? my only complaint on my new XPS17 is the touchpad, otherwise it is awesome!

Had to install the driver first, then it became available.

I wiped my XPS17 when I got it and reinstalled Win7 Ultimate. Redoing the drivers has been a pain :emotion-1:

Well, I am following this discussion.  I have an inspiron  5040 but the issue is the same.  I downloaded the drivers, and my "disable" button is still disabled and unable to use it.  When I do Fn-F3 nothing happens, even though F3 has a little touchpad icon on it. I am really frustrated.

On my Studio, I also had frustrating Touchpad issues when I migrated to Windows7, but they went away when I installed the Vista drivers, if memory serves.  Now, when I go into Mouse Properties in the control panel, I clearly see a tab for DELL Touchpad which I can configure to be less sensitive.

Hi Bojoba,

Welcome to the Community. I suggest you can try to completely uninstall the touch pad software  by accessing Programs and Feature under Control panel.After uninstalling reboot the system and install the Touch pad driver using the link below :

www.dell.com/.../DriverFileFormats

While performing the above steps,also have an external mouse with you, just in case you need it.

You can also refer to this link below for more information on enabling and disabling touch pad using hot keys:

support.dell.com/.../document

Hope this helps.

Thank You

Roshan.

i also have a dell xps 17 and it has taken me awhile to figure out to this but it can be done. download driver R302461 and R293038. go into your driver files open them and click on the setup option. you will have to restart your computer but the quick button on your computer will work and it will put the touchpad icon on your task bar.

Thanks for this,  

I have Windows 8 and a XPS 14 with which i have problems since the beginning, I can get to the point where the menu show "disable", but only  the "uninstall" button is active, and i wuld rather not as I may have to use this crazy touchpad which sends my pointer anywhere at any time....

Any help is welcome to deactivate this device which is not shown as such in the menus

THE SOLUTION OFFERED WAS COMPLETELY USELESS. THE DISABLE TAB WAS NOT HIGHLIGHTED AND WOULD NOT WORK! DELL sTUDIO SERIES xps RUNNING wINDOWS 7 hOME..

HOW ABOUT SOME ACCURATE ADVICE?