How do I disable Pinch Zoom on Touchpad Surface Pro 3

Anonymous
2014-11-28T16:26:57+00:00

I have a Surface Pro 3 with the Surface Pro Type Cover.  I also have big hands and find too often I am inadvertently hitting the touchpad and zooming out (mostly) and in.  How can I disable the pinch zoom feature on the touchpad?  I have already disabled the tap feature to avoid inadvertently moving the cursor and disabled Caps Lock as these were problems as well.

PS: I love the Pro 3 (after getting used to Windows 8.1).  My MacPro using girlfriend is very jealous.

Surface | Surface Headphones | Touch and gestures

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Anonymous
2014-11-30T00:05:11+00:00

Hello BobC1958,

I understand that your hands are accidentally making the gesture to zoom in on your Surface Pro 3. I'll do what I can to help you with this.

I've gone through the settings and cannot find a way to turn this off. You could disable the touchpad altogether in pc settings and use a mouse. It may not be the solution you are looking for, but it would work as a workaround.

Let us know if that works or if you have any other questions.

Best Wishes,

Zack_T

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-09-27T21:39:26+00:00

    Hiya :) Thanks for trying to help. Your post alerted me to another issue with this machine - the device properties tab is missing from my mouse controls. It was the first place I looked to change settings but it is not there and your comment prompted me to go looking for other stuff. I can't do anything about it because I'm not given the option - but since I am the system administrator, I don't know whether this is a faux pas on the part of the people setting up my device or whether it is endemic to Win8.1. I cannot do anything with the drivers either.

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-09-27T21:15:49+00:00

    VraieEsprit,

    Have you tried a search for your PC?   Try something like " How to disable pinch zoom and a __________________  (fill-in-the-blank)  laptop."    I did a search for the surface pro 3 and did not find anything.    But I did find generic answers that look like:

    How to turn off pinch zoom settings for windows 8

    1. Go into the top right corner of your screen and wait for the bar to appear.
    2. Click "search" and type in "mouse"
    3. Click "change mouse settings"
    4. Click "Device settings" (There should be a red icon next to it)
    5. Double click "Synaptics Touchpad V7.5" under devices
    6. Uncheck "Pinchzoom"

    7.Click "apply"

    1. Click "OK"

    Good luck.   I have been looking for almost a year.    I have stopped using 2 fingers on the touch pad.  It was hard bat first, now it second nature.    RP

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-09-27T19:54:50+00:00

    I have a similar problem with the touchpad on my PC. It is not the same PC but it is having the same issue.

    I didn't choose this PC, it is a disability aid PC. The zoom function is making it very hard for me to do my work as a student with this computer. I want to turn it off, but there doesn't seem to be a way of doing it. I would have thought that this oversight is a major blip on accessibility, since it is making my PC highly inaccessible and causing me increasing levels of frustration trying to do basic tasks.

    This is a computer, it is not a mobile phone. It doesn't need to have touchscreen functions or at least, it needs to have the option to turn them off and operate the computer as a computer for those of us who have actual legitimate needs for it rather than just checking facebook. We are not all touch screen people. Some of us liked our computers to behave as computers.

    It is amazing to me that there is no way to fix this. The touchpad on this PC is driving me crazy, as is the whole setup of Windows 8.1.

    Do something about it please, Microsoft. Introducing it into Windows 10 won't help me because all my disability software is installed on this PC and so I can't upgrade.

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-05-08T11:33:57+00:00

    This is my biggest annoyance with the SP3.   If I had known about pinch zoom I would not have bought the thing.    My complainants are regarding Pinch zoom, number lock, and no print screen key.  I can fix the number lock and print screen,  but how can I disable pinch zoom?   I am left using only one finger while using the touch-pad,  and I still resize constantly.

    Using a mouse is not an acceptable fix for this.   I got it for the size and for the keyboard.   There has to be some way of turning off pinch zoom.   I get very frustrated using this as a laptop.

    PLEASE...  Find a fix for this!

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