Microsoft Precision Touchpad, not very precise

Anonymous
2015-03-02T22:40:42+00:00

I recently purchased a laptop from Microsoft (2015 Dell XPS 13") that uses the Microsoft Precision Touchpad. 

There are a few issues I'm having with this touchpad that I've never noticed with other laptops and I'm wondering if anyone else is experiencing these or if there are any fixes. 

  1. There is a noticeable delay when trying to make slow light movements. My finger can move several millimeters before the cursor responds. It may not sound like much, but if you're trying to make subtle movements in photoshop, or select a specific character anywhere it's very noticeable and difficult to use. 
  2. The majority of the time when I lift my finger the cursor will jump several pixels, often moving away from the object I'm trying to target. 
  3. If you use any browser besides IE, two finger scrolling is very choppy and has a similar delay that's experienced in the first issue. 

There are a few other minor annoyances, like poor palm detection and using two hands (one to move the cursor and one to click with) but the issues above are the biggest annoyances, ordered by most annoying to least. 

If anyone has any ways to fix these issues or install different drivers, I'd love to hear about them.

Thanks!

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

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-01-24T04:15:11+00:00

    All I can say is that I DEFINITELY saw a difference in cursor behavior after changing those keys. I'm certain since I've been annoyed with the default behavior for two years! Whether the change was caused by changing the keys, or just coincidental and related to something else, I obviously don't know.

    Evidence supporting your statement: I've changed the keys back to default values, but the new (better) behavior persists, oddly enough! For better or worse, I can't replicate the original lag I had experienced for so long.

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-01-08T04:46:08+00:00

    Those registry keys have no effect on cursor movement. Can you try experimenting with other values and see if you actually experience a difference?

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  3. Anonymous
    2018-01-06T06:08:49+00:00

    The only changes I made were to set "CurtainDismissDistance" and "CurtainDismissTime" to 0. What I noticed was that there was no longer any delay (spatial or temporal) in cursor moving with respect to me moving my finger on the trackpad.

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  4. Anonymous
    2018-01-01T02:51:51+00:00

    @chuckecheeseli, what behavior differences did you experience with those registry changes? I'd like to compare your observations with how those registry values are actually used in the Windows code base.

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  5. Anonymous
    2017-12-19T05:55:47+00:00

    I've lost track of this thread, but after a few years of frustration, I've only just now came across this simple registry edit solution that worked for me!

    XPS 13 9343

    Windows 10 Home

    version 1709

    build 16299.125

    Copied and pasted from original post by user "thl6118" at http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/p/19654037/21038442

    ######################################

    I know that many users find that the touchpad on XPS 13 (Early 2015) is not responsive, has poor scrolling performance etc. and tried to install many different types of 3rd party drivers.

    I have found a solution that has dramatically improved touchpad performance in Windows 10 (for Dell XPS 13 - 9343).

    It does not require any Synaptics drivers (trust me, I have manually updated the driver many times from 3rd party websites, the solutions didn't work)

    This requires registry changes:

    1. Run - regedit
    2. Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SOFTWARE -> Microsoft -> Windows -> CurrentVersion -> PrecisionTouchPad
    3. Change the "CurtainDismissDistance" and "CurtainDismissTime" to 0 (this will eliminate any lag or delays)
    4. Change the "GestureScrollMaxDistance" to your liking (I set it as 40 (hexadecimal value)
    5. Restart

    It works in Windows 10. You may want to create system restore point before doing the above. Cheers

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