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#31
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Is there freeware to turn OFF the sensitive TOUCHPAD when a USBmouse is connected?
Art Todesco wrote:
They both use a proprietary control key that must be held while hitting a number key or a function key. I don't know if that control sequence exists for my Dell XPS M1730 laptop, but, luckily, I don't need the control sequence because it's all automatic now that I loaded the (supposedly optional) driver for the touchpad from Dell. http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/...duct/xps-m1730 IMHO, it's a MANDATORY download, since the keyboard is essentially useless with the touchpad in the way, moving the cursor all over the place in the middle of your sentences. |
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#32
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Is there freeware to turn OFF the sensitive TOUCHPAD when a USB mouse is connected?
On Tue, 10 Sep 2013 23:31:18 +0100, choro wrote:
No it ain't! The taskbar SHOULD be hidden unless you want to use it. Alternatively, it SHOULDN'T be hidden if you don't want it hidden. I think most of us probably don't want it hidden. What is the point of having all that space if you cannot use it or if it hides a good proportion of whatever it is you have up and running. If the taskbar takes up an objectionable amount of your screen real estate, you might consider a bigger monitor, or perhaps you've expanded your task bar to multiple rows. Shrink it back down to just one or two rows and it won't use much screen space at all. Besides in Windows 8 you have the option of displaying the taskbar on the LHS of the screen As others have said, that's been there since '95. -- Char Jackson |
#33
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Is there freeware to turn OFF the sensitive TOUCHPAD when a USBmouse is connected?
Char Jackson wrote:
If the taskbar takes up an objectionable amount of your screen real estate, you might consider a bigger monitor, or perhaps you've expanded your task bar to multiple rows. Shrink it back down to just one or two rows and it won't use much screen space at all. What I do, on Windows, is move the taskbar to the sides. This is to protect the vertical (up:down) real estate, which is 50 times more precious than side-to-side real estate on most HD screens. On Linux, unfortunately, it can't be done due to Gnome bugs that make putting the menus on the sides impossible to use once you open 7 or more windows. |
#34
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Is there freeware to turn OFF the sensitive TOUCHPAD when a USB mouse is connected?
Danny D. wrote:
VanguardLH wrote: Isn't there a button alongside the edge of the touchpad to physically enable/disable it? You don't identify the touchpad. Is it in a laptop? If so, which one (make and model)? Is it a standalone device? I don't see a manual disable button. It's a Dell XPS M1730. The darn touchpad is smack right where your hands go! Reviews: http://www.trustedreviews.com/Dell-X..._Laptop_review http://www.cnet.com/laptops/dell-xps...-32687269.html I went to the Dell support site but their manuals really suck to describe how to use their product. With the identification of the make and model, I found an online picture of the keyboard at: http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/...0-keyboard.jpg I don't see any disable button near the touchpad. None of the Fn key combos look to disable the touch pad. So Dell has not provided an easy-of-use feature for their touchpad. I can't tell from the above pic if those are 4 programmable buttons at the top right of the keyboard. http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/...30-open-on.jpg http://images.hardwarezone.com/uploa...4eae82cd6f.jpg From those pics, it doesn't look like any of the media buttons on the front edge will disable the touchpad. So it looks like Dell didn't bother providing an easy disable/enable button for the touchpad. Guess they didn't realize that uses of this product might want to use external keyboards and mice. So I'd focus on using Microsoft's devcon utility to disable hardware. This is their command-line version of Device Manager. You could create shortcuts (on the desktop, in the Start menu, or in a toolbar in the Windows taskbar) to run devcon with parameters to disable or enable a hardware device. No reboot should be needed to disable or enable a HID (human interface device). http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311272/fi Use the regular graphical Device Manager (devmgmt.msc) to select the device (the touchpad, in this case), right-click on it, select Properties, and under the Details tab find the Hardware ID of the device (select "Hardware ID" from the drop-down list). You use that string in the 'disable' and 'enable' parameters to devcon.exe. You might be able to get away with shortening the hardware ID to remove the REV portion. For example, the hardware ID might look like: USB\VID_06E6&PID_C200&REV_0044&MI_04 but maybe the following would work: USB\VID_06E6&PID_C200 That way, if you update the driver, your shortcut to run devcon won't be tied to a revision of the device. You can use the 'find' parameter to make sure that devcon can locate the device by the hardware ID you specify. |
#35
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Is there freeware to turn OFF the sensitive TOUCHPAD when a USB mouse is connected?
VanguardLH wrote:
Danny D. wrote: VanguardLH wrote: Isn't there a button alongside the edge of the touchpad to physically enable/disable it? You don't identify the touchpad. Is it in a laptop? If so, which one (make and model)? Is it a standalone device? I don't see a manual disable button. It's a Dell XPS M1730. The darn touchpad is smack right where your hands go! Reviews: http://www.trustedreviews.com/Dell-X..._Laptop_review http://www.cnet.com/laptops/dell-xps...-32687269.html I went to the Dell support site but their manuals really suck to describe how to use their product. With the identification of the make and model, I found an online picture of the keyboard at: http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/...0-keyboard.jpg I don't see any disable button near the touchpad. None of the Fn key combos look to disable the touch pad. So Dell has not provided an easy-of-use feature for their touchpad. I can't tell from the above pic if those are 4 programmable buttons at the top right of the keyboard. http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/...30-open-on.jpg http://images.hardwarezone.com/uploa...4eae82cd6f.jpg From those pics, it doesn't look like any of the media buttons on the front edge will disable the touchpad. So it looks like Dell didn't bother providing an easy disable/enable button for the touchpad. Guess they didn't realize that uses of this product might want to use external keyboards and mice. So I'd focus on using Microsoft's devcon utility to disable hardware. This is their command-line version of Device Manager. You could create shortcuts (on the desktop, in the Start menu, or in a toolbar in the Windows taskbar) to run devcon with parameters to disable or enable a hardware device. No reboot should be needed to disable or enable a HID (human interface device). http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311272/fi Use the regular graphical Device Manager (devmgmt.msc) to select the device (the touchpad, in this case), right-click on it, select Properties, and under the Details tab find the Hardware ID of the device (select "Hardware ID" from the drop-down list). You use that string in the 'disable' and 'enable' parameters to devcon.exe. You might be able to get away with shortening the hardware ID to remove the REV portion. For example, the hardware ID might look like: USB\VID_06E6&PID_C200&REV_0044&MI_04 but maybe the following would work: USB\VID_06E6&PID_C200 That way, if you update the driver, your shortcut to run devcon won't be tied to a revision of the device. You can use the 'find' parameter to make sure that devcon can locate the device by the hardware ID you specify. Oh, I see in your reply in another subthread that using the Dell drivers gave you a disable/enable function. So go with that. Since the disable is automatic when a USB HID device is attached then it's easier to use and you don't have to remember to click on the shortcut(s) to devcon to disable and later reenable the touchpad. |
#36
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Is there freeware to turn OFF the sensitive TOUCHPAD when a USB mouse is connected?
On Fri, 13 Sep 2013 08:01:11 +0000 (UTC), "Danny D."
wrote: What I do, on Windows, is move the taskbar to the sides. This is to protect the vertical (up:down) real estate, which is 50 times more precious than side-to-side real estate on most HD screens. Same here, and for the same reason. |
#37
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Is there freeware to turn OFF the sensitive TOUCHPAD when a USBmouse is connected?
On 13/09/13 10:01, Danny D. wrote:
Char Jackson wrote: If the taskbar takes up an objectionable amount of your screen real estate, you might consider a bigger monitor, or perhaps you've expanded your task bar to multiple rows. Shrink it back down to just one or two rows and it won't use much screen space at all. What I do, on Windows, is move the taskbar to the sides. This is to protect the vertical (up:down) real estate, which is 50 times more precious than side-to-side real estate on most HD screens. On Linux, unfortunately, it can't be done due to Gnome bugs that make putting the menus on the sides impossible to use once you open 7 or more windows. Of course you can do that, I have been able to do it since the mid 90's with no issues at all, just see to have a window manager or desktop environment which isn't done by people thinking a document they wrote is the answer to all desktop issues. KDE works fine having panels at the sides, if you think it's too heavy environment, then you can use CTWM which allows you to configure elements where ever you want them, these two are the extremes. For the OP, if he would use kcm_touchpad, he could disable the touchpad quite easily when ever he wants. -- //Aho |
#38
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Is there freeware to turn OFF the sensitive TOUCHPAD when a USB mouse is connected?
On Fri, 13 Sep 2013 07:07:46 -0500, VanguardLH wrote:
I went to the Dell support site but their manuals really suck to describe how to use their product. ... So it looks like Dell didn't bother providing an easy disable/enable button for the touchpad. Guess they didn't realize that uses of this product might want to use external keyboards and mice. I hear you brother! And if mine is representative, it's not just the documentation that sucks, but their keyboard design as well. My current Inspiron laptop (1784, if memory serves) has a key with an undecipherable icon between F12 and Insert. I discovered by accident that that turns the touchpad on and off. There's a battery icon on the F3 key, but I've been unable to discover what that does -- if it even does anything. There's no Pause/Break key. (This matters because Windows+Break is the keyboard shortcut for System properties.) Home, PgUp, etc aren't shown on the numeric keypad keys, so you just have to know which is which. The biggest annoyance: there's no indication at all of whether Caps Lock and Num Lock are on or off. I have a nice Logitech illuminated keyboard with none of those deficiencies, and when I'm at my desk that's what I use. -- Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA http://OakRoadSystems.com Shikata ga nai... |
#39
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Is there freeware to turn OFF the sensitive TOUCHPAD when a USBmouse is connected?
On 9/12/2013 8:46 PM, Danny D. wrote:
Art Todesco wrote: They both use a proprietary control key that must be held while hitting a number key or a function key. I don't know if that control sequence exists for my Dell XPS M1730 laptop, but, luckily, I don't need the control sequence because it's all automatic now that I loaded the (supposedly optional) driver for the touchpad from Dell. http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/...duct/xps-m1730 IMHO, it's a MANDATORY download, since the keyboard is essentially useless with the touchpad in the way, moving the cursor all over the place in the middle of your sentences. Gee, someone who knows how to type! Yeah, I have the same problem with my little Dell. When we travel in the motorhome, we take it, but have a cordless mouse that goes along too, and we disable the touchpad. But, if I'm using it sans rodentia, and have to type a lot, I will disable the touchpad. BTW, the control sequence doesn't really involve the regular cntl key, but a special key labelled Fn that is on both the Dell and Gateway. |
#40
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Is there freeware to turn OFF the sensitive TOUCHPAD when a USB mouse is connected?
On Sat, 14 Sep 2013 05:44:12 -0400, Stan Brown
wrote: I hear you brother! And if mine is representative, it's not just the documentation that sucks, but their keyboard design as well. My current Inspiron laptop (1784, if memory serves) has a key with an undecipherable icon between F12 and Insert. I discovered by accident that that turns the touchpad on and off. There's a battery icon on the F3 key, but I've been unable to discover what that does -- if it even does anything. There's no Pause/Break key. (This matters because Windows+Break is the keyboard shortcut for System properties.) Interestingly, the keyboard on my wife's new Dell *Desktop* doesn't have a Pause|Break key either. I wonder why they decided to omit it.. Yes, Windows key + that key gets you to System Properties, but as far as I'm concerned, since there are other ways to get there and most of us don't need to get there very often, it doesn't matter a whole lot. If it mattered to my wife (who has probably never touched that key in the several years she's had her own computer), I could easily replace that keyboard with any of several others I have here. |
#41
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Is there freeware to turn OFF the sensitive TOUCHPAD when a USBmouse is connected?
On Sat, 14 Sep 2013 05:44:12 -0400, Stan Brown wrote: I hear you brother! And if mine is representative, it's not just the documentation that sucks, but their keyboard design as well. My current Inspiron laptop (1784, if memory serves) has a key with an undecipherable icon between F12 and Insert. I discovered by accident that that turns the touchpad on and off. Looks like a - with a triangle above it? Ejects optical drive. There's a battery icon on the F3 key, but I've been unable to discover what that does -- if it even does anything. Fn+F3 opens Battery Meter. |
#42
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Is there freeware to turn OFF the sensitive TOUCHPAD when a USBmouse is connected?
Danny D. wrote:
Art Todesco wrote: They both use a proprietary control key that must be held while hitting a number key or a function key. I don't know if that control sequence exists for my Dell XPS M1730 laptop, but, luckily, I don't need the control sequence because it's all automatic now that I loaded the (supposedly optional) driver for the touchpad from Dell. http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/...duct/xps-m1730 IMHO, it's a MANDATORY download, since the keyboard is essentially useless with the touchpad in the way, moving the cursor all over the place in the middle of your sentences. I've looked for a similar driver for a Dell NC-6000 and can't find one. I would appreciate any help finding it because like the rest of you the touchpad gets in the way. Right now I have it covered with a piece of cardboard. I've looked for a key to press to turn the touchpad on and off and I've looked under mouse to find a turn off option and I can find neither. Thanks |
#43
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Is there freeware to turn OFF the sensitive TOUCHPAD when a USBmouse is connected?
Mea Culpa. I meant a Compaq NC-6000 laptop. Sorry. I really looked for a
Compaq driver. Henry wrote: Danny D. wrote: Art Todesco wrote: They both use a proprietary control key that must be held while hitting a number key or a function key. I don't know if that control sequence exists for my Dell XPS M1730 laptop, but, luckily, I don't need the control sequence because it's all automatic now that I loaded the (supposedly optional) driver for the touchpad from Dell. http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/...duct/xps-m1730 IMHO, it's a MANDATORY download, since the keyboard is essentially useless with the touchpad in the way, moving the cursor all over the place in the middle of your sentences. I've looked for a similar driver for a Dell NC-6000 and can't find one. I would appreciate any help finding it because like the rest of you the touchpad gets in the way. Right now I have it covered with a piece of cardboard. I've looked for a key to press to turn the touchpad on and off and I've looked under mouse to find a turn off option and I can find neither. Thanks |
#44
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Is there freeware to turn OFF the sensitive TOUCHPAD when a USB mouse is connected?
Danny D. wrote:
IMHO, it's a MANDATORY download, since the keyboard is essentially useless with the touchpad in the way, moving the cursor all over the place in the middle of your sentences. Methinks you have sensitivity set way too high so any nearby position of your palm is detected as a touchpad press. I know lots of laptop users that can type just fine. I've known some that had sensitivity way too high so them naturally flexing at the wrist places their palms too close to the over sensitive touchpad; however, once they properly configure sensitivity then the problem goes away. If the touchpad is too sensitive for approximate position by your hands triggering touchpad events then it's also too sensitive for when you want to use the touchpad. Reduce sensitivity. |
#45
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Is there freeware to turn OFF the sensitive TOUCHPAD when a USB mouse is connected?
On Sat, 14 Sep 2013 21:50:49 -0500, Bob I wrote:
On Sat, 14 Sep 2013 05:44:12 -0400, Stan Brown wrote: I hear you brother! And if mine is representative, it's not just the documentation that sucks, but their keyboard design as well. My current Inspiron laptop (1784, if memory serves) has a key with an undecipherable icon between F12 and Insert. I discovered by accident that that turns the touchpad on and off. Looks like a - with a triangle above it? No. Ejects optical drive. I already told what it does -- you even quoted me. There's a battery icon on the F3 key, but I've been unable to discover what that does -- if it even does anything. Fn+F3 opens Battery Meter. That would be logical, but it doesn't. -- Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA http://OakRoadSystems.com Shikata ga nai... |
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