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!

I would very much like to turn these things off too but I have a Lenovo Ideapad and I cannot find the edge swipe options.  I have followed the instructions above but I've clicked on every option under device setting> setting and I have not found it.  I found Edge Motion but that does not seem to the correct item...  any help would be very much appreciated. 

Hi. Can I start by saying I'm clued up with some things, but really a novice compared to most of you guys on here. A BIG thanks to who wrote the original post above.

I have a new Lenovo G580 laptop and in the control panel mouse properties under the last tab I have an "Elan" smart pad. Under the tab there was a bullet ticked to say there was an icon in the system tray (that looks like a screen monitor of all things). When I double clicked on this icon in the hidden icons area it was there that I found the edge swipe setting. I've now disabled it and voila!! the side bar is now disabled via edge swipes. Thank f!*@ for that. This has driven me insane since day 1!!

Many thanks, and I hope this will help those with the new Lenovo Laptops. All the best. Jules.

I followed this exactly as indicated and it didn't change about the way the charms bar is responding. 

I have tried a number of different fixes, which have worked for different people, but I cannot get this to stop popping up whenever I touch the right side of the touchpad.  It is a pity too, because this is my only gripe about Windows 8, but it is enough to make me get rid of it.

i got a windows 8 Toshiba satellite C850 1GL laptop and cant disable the swipe it keeps changing screens. how do i disable it

I don't know what to do, I have tried everything, from the bash scripts to manual registry editing. I am totally going change my OS, I am not even considering going back to Windows 7 because I am hating Windows so much right now. Alas my friendship with Windows is over. Unless they come up with a way to disable these irritating features. I do not want to use it.

Go Ubuntu..