How to Enable or Disable the Touchpad in Windows 11 Settings

Turn the Touchpad On or Off in Settings

This is the main method and works on any Windows 11 laptop using the standard Precision Touchpad driver—Microsoft’s touchpad software that most modern laptops use.

1. Open Settings ⚙️. Click the Start button ⊞, then click the gear icon, or press Win+I. The Settings ⚙️ window opens on the Home page.

   

2. Click Bluetooth 🔷 & devices in the left-hand menu. The right side of the window lists your connected devices, printers, mouse, and touchpad options.

   

3. Click Touchpad. You’ll land on a page with a toggle switch at the very top, labelled just “Touchpad,” followed by sections for taps, scroll and zoom gestures, and three- and four-finger gestures.

   

4. Switch the toggle off to disable the touchpad, or on to enable it. When it’s off, every option below it — tap to click, gestures, sensitivity — greys out, because none of it applies while the touchpad is disabled.

Turn the Touchpad Off Automatically When You Plug In a Mouse

If you only want the touchpad disabled while a mouse is connected — and back on automatically when you unplug it — you don’t need to toggle it manually every time.

1. Open the Touchpad page the same way as above: Settings > Bluetooth 🔷 & devices > Touchpad.

   

2. Find the checkbox labelled “Leave touchpad on when a mouse is connected.” It sits just under the main toggle switch.
3. Clear the checkbox if you want Windows to disable the touchpad automatically whenever it detects a mouse, and re-enable it the moment you unplug the mouse. Leave the checkbox ticked if you want the touchpad to stay active alongside a mouse.

   

This setting only reacts to a physical USB or Bluetooth 🔷 mouse being connected — it won’t disable the touchpad just because you’re using a stylus or an external keyboard.

Disable the Touchpad from Device Manager

Use this method if the Settings toggle is missing, if third-party touchpad software has taken over the settings page, or if you manage the machine remotely and want a change that won't be overwritten by automatic updates. This requires administrator privileges.

1. Right-click the Start button and select Device Manager from the menu. The Device Manager window opens, listing hardware categories.

   

2. Expand "Mice and other pointing devices" by clicking the arrow next to it. You'll see your touchpad listed, often as "HID-compliant touch pad" or with the manufacturer's name (Synaptics, Elan, or similar).
3. Right-click the touchpad entry and choose Disable device from the menu. A warning box appears asking you to confirm — click Yes. The touchpad stops responding immediately.
4. To turn it back on, right-click the same entry again and choose Enable device. No restart is required either way.

Be careful with this method on a laptop with no external mouse plugged in: if you disable the only pointing device you have, you'll need to plug in a mouse, use the touchscreen if your laptop has one, or navigate with the keyboard (Tab and arrow keys work in most menus) to re-enable it.

Use a Keyboard Shortcut or Function Key

Many laptop manufacturers build a hardware toggle into the keyboard, separate from anything in Windows. Look for a touchpad icon on one of the function keys (commonly F5, F6, F7, or F9, depending on the brand) and press it along with the Fn key. The keyboard shortcut uses the manufacturer's driver, not Windows Settings. The two can conflict: disable via function key, and Settings may still show the touchpad as "on" even though it won't work.

If you're not sure whether your laptop has this shortcut, check the keyboard for a small touchpad or "no-touch" icon printed on a function key row, or check the manufacturer's support site for your exact model.

Why the Touchpad Toggle Might Be Missing or Greyed Out

A few things trip people up in practice:

• No "Touchpad" entry under Bluetooth & devices at all. This almost always means Windows doesn't see your touchpad as a Precision Touchpad device — usually because the manufacturer ships its own driver (older Synaptics or Elan drivers) instead of using Microsoft's Precision Touchpad standard. In that case, look for a separate "Mouse and Touchpad" or manufacturer-named control panel, either in Settings or as a standalone app installed by the laptop maker.
• The toggle is there but greyed out. This can happen if your workplace or school has locked the touchpad settings through management software. If you're on a managed device, IT support needs to change this, not you — trying to force it through Device Manager will usually get reverted at the next policy refresh.
• You just updated Windows or your touchpad driver. Driver updates occasionally reset touchpad settings to default (touchpad on, gestures enabled), so if a setting you configured before an update has quietly reverted, that's the likely cause rather than anything you did wrong.
• Desktop with an external touchpad. If you've plugged in a standalone touchpad accessory rather than using a laptop's built-in one, it may show up under "Mouse" instead of "Touchpad" in Bluetooth & devices, since Windows doesn't always classify external touchpads as Precision Touchpad devices.

If your laptop's touchpad settings page has an "Advanced" or "Additional settings" link, that opens the manufacturer's own control panel. Settings made there can override what you set in Windows, so if the touchpad won't stay disabled, check there too.

How to Undo Any of These Changes

Every method above is reversible in the same place you made it: flip the toggle back on in Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Touchpad, re-tick "Leave touchpad on when a mouse is connected," or right-click the device in Device Manager and choose Enable device. None of these changes require a restart to take effect or to undo, and none of them affect other Windows settings.

What to Do Next

Once the touchpad is behaving the way you want, it's worth checking the gesture and sensitivity settings on the same Touchpad page in Settings, since they're easy to fine-tune at the same time you're already there. If you use an external mouse regularly, our guide on adjusting Night light and other display comfort settings in Windows 11 is a natural next stop for setting up your desk for longer sessions. And if you manage more than one Windows 11 machine, it's worth learning how Task Manager can help you spot a touchpad driver that's misbehaving or hogging resources before it causes bigger problems.