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
    2015-09-27T21:15:49+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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  2. 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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  3. Anonymous
    2015-12-17T07:54:16+00:00

    Not sure how Zack_T's response can be listed as an answer, which it definitely is not.

    I agree with other posts that this is a serious negative of the SP3. I now try not to use the pad at all due to this problem and use a bluetooth mouse instead. A USB mouse may be better in some ways, but occupies the only USB port, so unless you use a USB hub it is restrictive.

    Microsoft PLEASE allow us to turn of Pinch/Zoom

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-07-06T17:09:55+00:00

    Microsoft has added the ability to turn this off in Windows 10.  This is one concrete good reason to upgrade!

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