Disable the touchscreen for a Windows 8 laptop?

Anonymous
2012-11-06T23:19:41+00:00

I have a Dell XPS L702x notorious for having ghost clicking issues, where the touchscreen randomly "clicks" on arbitrary areas of the screen (mine seems to be in the lower right hand corner, often minimizing all my open windows or opening the calendar), and through the upgrade to Windows 8 it seems as though an old N-Trig driver went missing which let me disable the touchscreen. Now I have no way to turn off the touchscreen, and while Google has suggested unclicking "User your finger as an input device" under Pen and Touch, I don't even have that checkbox available to un-click!

So: How can I disable the touchscreen on my laptop or is there a program that can do that for me? I am uninterested in actually using the touchscreen -- I'm more worried about being able to functionally use my laptop without sporadic clicks on my screen.

Thanks.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Search, touch, and mouse

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments
Answer accepted by question author
Anonymous
2012-11-09T03:00:43+00:00

I had the same problem with my wife's XPS 17.    I needed to restore basic functionality so disabling the touch screen was acceptable.     However, unlike Vikin (but like you) I didn't have the "Use your finger as input" option in the control panel.

I tried to disable the N-Trig device driver in the Device Manager but the driver did not seem to have be correctly installed (after upgrading from win7)

I went to the N-Trig driver download site (http://www.n-trig.com/Content.aspx?Page=Downloads_Drivers) and downloaded the new drivers for windows 8 (I have the feeling they were not there last week).

I then when to the "Device Manager" options on the "Hardware and Sound" page of the Control Panel.    

In the Device Manager display I saw a N-trig DuoSense Digitizers node with several sub-node underneath it (before dev driver install there was only one).

I right mouse buttoned on the item at the top, with a name ending in "Root Interface" and selected "Disable".   

This successfully disabled the touch screen.

Shame to lose the touch screen but my wife did not use it and I was in danger of my life as it was.

Was this answer helpful?

30+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments

70 additional answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2015-11-04T14:11:00+00:00

    I was able to turn it off on my laptop by hitting the

    Windows button +X

    Device Manager

    Human Interface Devices

    HID-compliant touch screen

    R click and disable

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2015-06-07T14:17:10+00:00

    Thx a whole lot!!...I almost cried when my screen cracked 2the point where it seemed like it was almost impossible to use it again.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2015-05-20T04:50:37+00:00

    on the Surface Pro 3, can you disable the finger touch feature, while still retaining the stylus/pen touch feature?

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2015-05-20T04:47:48+00:00

    Yes, Why did they remove the "disable finger touch" feature?

    I want the stylus to function, but not my finger.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments