How to disable gestures (charms bar, edge swipes, etc...) without changing the registry

I've had a Windows 8 laptop for a few days and the charms bar/settings pages that kept popping up out of nowhere were driving me absolutely insane.  BUT, I finally figured out how to turn them off. 

I went into control panel>hardware and sound>mouse>device settings>settings.  From there you can adjust a lot of the trackpad settings, including DISABLE EDGE SWIPES. 

I have a Toshiba Satellite with a synaptics mouse/trackpad, so i cant guarantee this works with all models, devices, etc. 

Windows 8 for laptop is now tolerable!  Hope this helps!

THANK YOU so much for the solution.  It worked perfectly.  What a relief not to have the charms bar popping up all the time.

Try this; maybe it will work:

Control Panel>Mouse>UltraNav>TouchPad Settings>Application Gestures>Edge Swipes>Deselect “Enable Edge Swipes”

This seriously just spared me from throwing my new Lenovo out a window! The charms are beyond irritating. Thanks!

PS I was having a serious wifi issue until I read on another forum to disable "wmm" in the wireless adapter settings, hope that can help someone else!

I can't imagine why anyone would want the charms feature in the first place. After an hour on youtube with some well-meaning guy named Dan, none of his methods worked on my computer. The above method worked, so thank you! I was looking for a cheap backup laptop when I came across this Toshiba for $279. When I stared using it and the charms bars kept popping up, I almost threw it against the wall! Now that I've gotten rid of them, and installed a Windows 7 shell, I can get to work!

Thanks. I appreciate the suggestion. I tried that when I first installed 8.1. It didn't work on my HP Envy. That's why I went on a 3 week bender. Found out about the Synaptics Touch Pad fix and now I'm clean (except at cocktail hour).