How to Change Touchpad Three-finger Tap Gesture in Windows 11

This tutorial shows you how to change the touchpad three-finger tap gesture on your Windows 11 account.

If your Windows 11 device (like a laptop) has a built-in precision touchpad, you can change what the three-finger tap does. Your options include doing nothing, opening search, opening Notification center, playing or pausing media, or acting like a middle mouse button click.

Option One

Change Touchpad Three-finger Tap Gesture in Settings

1. Open Settings (press Win+I).
2. Click on Bluetooth & devices on the left side. Then click on Touchpad on the right side.

 Open Touchpad settings

3. Click on Three-finger gestures to expand the section.
4. Select one option from the Taps drop menu: Nothing, Open search (default), Notification center, Play/pause, or Middle mouse button.
5. You can now close Settings.

Option Two

Change Touchpad Three-finger Tap Gesture using Registry

⚠️ Admin privileges required

Change Touchpad Three-finger Tap Gesture to “Nothing”

reg add "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\PrecisionTouchPad" /v ThreeFingerTapEnabled /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

Change Touchpad Three-finger Tap Gesture to “Open search”

This is the default setting.

reg add "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\PrecisionTouchPad" /v ThreeFingerTapEnabled /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

Change Touchpad Three-finger Tap Gesture to “Notification center”

reg add "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\PrecisionTouchPad" /v ThreeFingerTapEnabled /t REG_DWORD /d 2 /f

Change Touchpad Three-finger Tap Gesture to “Play/pause”

reg add "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\PrecisionTouchPad" /v ThreeFingerTapEnabled /t REG_DWORD /d 3 /f

Change Touchpad Three-finger Tap Gesture to “Middle mouse button”

reg add "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\PrecisionTouchPad" /v ThreeFingerTapEnabled /t REG_DWORD /d 4 /f

Summary

You can change your touchpad three-finger tap gesture in two ways. The easiest way is through Settings where you can pick from several options. If you prefer using the registry, you can edit values to control the gesture. Both methods work well. Pick whichever one feels easier for you.