Microsoft Precision Touchpad, not very precise

I ordered a Dell MS Signature Edition Laptop from the Microsoft store. A laptop that uses Microsoft drivers for it's touchpad hardware. It's my understanding that these are the only Drivers available for this hardware. 

I thought that Microsoft would be interested in customer feedback about a Laptop purchased from Microsoft that uses Microsoft drivers. So I decided to post my feedback here as well as on other community forums.

It feels pretty crappy when you take the time to post to what's supposed to be a helpful community (run by the company who sold you a product that uses the operating system and drivers of that company) just to be told to read a manual or go someone else.

Dell builds using Microsoft's platform.  Even if the platform they code on has an issue, Dell built on top of it, it has a problem, and then they sold it to you.  You need to contact the person you gave your money to (Dell) for resolution.

I gave Microsoft my money at the Microsoft Store to purchase this hardware. 

I've read trough enough user feedback elsewhere to be convinced that this is most likely an issue with the PTP spec on all Laptops using a PTP and not just the hardware Dell decided to use. 

Regardless, it's clear that this MS community is the wrong place to go to for help.  In fact this has been a horrible user experience filled with nothing but bureaucratic responses or buddy buddy tag team responses.  Unfortunately I'm alone on this forum so I wont be posting anymore. You can stop marking each others responses as answers because none of them have helped solve the original question. 

All I was hoping for is for some constructive conversation within the Microsoft community, not instant finger pointing.

Those registry settings have no affect on the operation.

This is ABSOLUTELY a Microsoft problem. It is NOT vendor specific to Dell and it is not a vendor driver that causes the problem.

Try this experiment:

Disable the HID device (Driver) in Device manager. Note that you will be disabling a MICROSOFT driver that is provided with MICROSOFT WINDOWS (8 or 10). "I2C HID Device" under human interface devices.

Reboot.

Touchpad now works perfectly (uses generic mouse emulation for a driver). No gestures, however, so this is NOT a solution. Only intended to demonstrate that this is a Microsoft WINDOWS problem (the WINDOWS DEVICE DRIVER, digitally signed, code-typed-in by Microsoft Employees) is the culprit. Dell does not provide an OEM driver for this device, and neither does Synaptics (the ultimate manufacture). They *COULD* provide an OEM driver, but they chose not to because Microsoft encouraged OEMs to simply provide Precision Touchpad hardware, and they (Windows 10) will take care of the rest . . .

The gesture detection driver in Microsoft Windows (8.1 and 10) does not work properly. It fails to allow cursor movement in the first 1-2mm of finger movement; once movement begins - it allows for very precise operation (1-2mm movements are fine). Pick up your finger and start over, and your back to laggy land

IMPORTANT NOTE:

Some people are not "bothered" by this behavior, and in fact, report that they do not have the problem. They do. Some people always move their finger a large distance (more than 2mm) every time they make initial contact and touch the pad - presumably to 'find' the cursor moving on the screen.. These people are perfectly happy with their driver-less (Windows 10 provided driver) Precision Touchpad. They report that they do not have any problem and their hardware does not have the issue. I have worked with several of these people and demonstrated the issue on their machines. Two of them told me they "do not care"; the other one now notices it all the time and is very mad at me :-)

Other people, like me, are INCREDIBLY bothered by this behavior - it violates the principal of UI design that *I* control the cursor - that my finger movement is intimately 'connected' to that cursor whenever I touch the pad. A violation of that trust cannot be tolerated. I cannot use any notebook computer that utilizes the Microsoft Windows 10 Precision Touchpad Drivers - including the Dell XPS-13 (Early 2015) model. When the updated Dell XPS-13 comes out next week, I suspect it will utilize an OEM driver because Dell is well-aware of Microsoft's FAILING in this area.

This is absolutely a Microsoft Windows 10 issue and needs to be corrected by Microsoft. I hold my breath with each Windows Update - hoping for a fix. I check the driver version numbers with each Windows Update - has not changed since pre-release builds.

Hi,

OEM's are 100% responsible for everything on the computer including Windows.

They sign contracts stating that fact so users will not get caught between the

OEM's and Microsoft or other providers.

Sorry you are having the issue however you absolutely need to be working with

Dell.

Rob - SpiritX

I'm just another user who had the same problem and figured out pretty quickly that Dell uses Microsoft's built-in drivers for the precision mouse, at Microsoft's urging, and that only Microsoft could fix the problem.  I would like to thank "MS MVP" SpiritX for doing absolutely nothing to help resolve this, for dodging and pointing away from the only company that could actually do something (Microsoft), for spamming this list repeatedly with the unhelpful "go away" post above which obscured the useful discussion happening around him, and for the following particularly nasty retort to a very relevant post indicating that Microsoft-branded laptops had the same issue and that the issue was really a native Windows driver:

Hi,

This thread is about a touchpad on a Dell computer, not a Surface.

If you have a problem with a Surface please post in the Surface Forums.

Rob - SpiritX

Thanks for nothing SpiritX!  Thanks to all the others that kept on this issue until it was actually addressed.  By Microsoft.  I'd agree that there's more improvement to be had, but at least someone worked on it.

I urge you MVP's to read this thread on the Dell community forums. (Specifically around pages 6-8)

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/t/19616659?pi239031352=8#20760800

Also read this AMA on Reddit to one of the Precision Touch Pad developers. 

http://www.reddit.com/r/windows/comments/1hky29/precision_touchpads_the_future_of_touchpads_on/

Also this follow up comment by the same MS PTP developer.

"Dell's correct that there's nothing they can do for this - it's entirely on our end. While I'm not working on PTPs this release, I've forwarded your feedback to the current owners."

So as an end user it still appears that this is a MS problem and not a Dell problem as you so hastily put the blame on.