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#1
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Can touchpad settings be locked, or saved?
(Firstly: those whose jerk reaction to anything about touchpads is to
say "I hate them, I turn them off and plug in a real mouse" - _please_ don't bother!) The touchpad designers (well, of the driver for them) have kindly made it rather easy to change how they behave. Unfortunately, some aspects are _too_ easy to trigger. I have at least two: Occasionally, I find I can only move the pointer horizontally or vertically (not diagonally). I'm pretty sure this is triggered by some action on my part. I can usually return it to normal by scribbling with Ctrl pressed. Today, the gain has reduced (or precision increased): I have to do a lot more sliding to achieve the same screen movement than I usually do. Again, I'm fairly sure this is due to something I've done. (Can't seem to restore it though [haven't tried a reboot] - even delving in and changing scroll speed.) Is there any way of _preventing_ these changes, i. e. turning off whatever it is that makes them easy to do? Or, a way of saving current settings that is relatively easy to restore? (Easier, that is, than Start, Settings, Control Panel, Mouse, Device Settings, Settings, now-which-setting-do-I-play-with.) FWIW Synaptics touchpad driver V7.4 under W7-32, though I'm pretty sure I still got them (can't remember driver version), at least the X-Y one, when I was on XP. -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf Who were your favourite TV stars or shows when you were a child? Sadly they've all been arrested ... Ian Hislop, in Radio Times 28 September-4 October 2013 |
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#2
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Can touchpad settings be locked, or saved?
J.P. ,
Touchpads ? I hate them, I turn them off and plug in a real mouse !... Jokes aside, there is a very good chance that they are stored in the registry, and that you can find them by searching for the company name and stuff like that. Or, a way of saving current settings that is relatively easy to restore? And you can ex- and import registry branches *very* easily. Though, depending on the driver, a reboot might be needed after importing one to get it noticed/read by the driver again. As for locking ? As far as I know thats possible (upto a point). Though the best I can suggest in that regard is that you search for "registry" and "locking entries" (or something like it), as it has been too long for me to remember exactly how I did it myself. Hope that helps. Regards, Rudy Wieser |
#3
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Can touchpad settings be locked, or saved?
J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
Occasionally, I find I can only move the pointer horizontally or vertically (not diagonally). I'm pretty sure this is triggered by some action on my part. I can usually return it to normal by scribbling with Ctrl pressed. Tried rebooting into Windows' safe mode and retest touchpad operation to eliminate any interferrence possible from startup programs? I've seen where a background program interferred with mouse positioning. In the touchpad setup, there are probably hot zones defined, like along the rightside for vertical scrolling and along the bottom for horizontal scrolling. Been too long since I last used my laptop but recall it had other hotspots, and special meanings for multiple taps (e.g., 3 taps for dragging) or 2-finger modes. Try disabling those special use zones and special tap modes so the touchpad ONLY does positioning of the mouse cursor. If the problem goes away, could be you are accidentally multi-tapping or using a hotspot. How many mice or pointing devices are defined in Device Manager (devmgmt.msc)? Did you leave plugged in a USB transceiver for a mouse or keyboard? |
#4
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Can touchpad settings be locked, or saved?
In message , R.Wieser
writes: J.P. , Touchpads ? I hate them, I turn them off and plug in a real mouse !... Jokes aside, there is a very good chance that they are stored in the registry, and that you can find them by searching for the company name and stuff like that. Or, a way of saving current settings that is relatively easy to restore? And you can ex- and import registry branches *very* easily. Though, depending on the driver, a reboot might be needed after importing one to get it noticed/read by the driver again. Finding the relevant registry branch(es), and certainly rebooting to reload them, was/is a _lot_ more tedious than I was hoping for. A reboot normally does restore the 'pad to how I want it to work anyway - or even just waiting. As for locking ? As far as I know thats possible (upto a point). Though the best I can suggest in that regard is that you search for "registry" and "locking entries" (or something like it), as it has been too long for me to remember exactly how I did it myself. Again, more delving than I'd hoped to do. I was hoping that someone might know a generic way of preventing the changes. Hope that helps. Thanks very much for trying. Regards, Rudy Wieser John -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf We no longer make things, but sell each other consultancy on how to run consulatancies better. (Michael Cross, Computing 1999-3-4 [p. 28].) |
#5
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Can touchpad settings be locked, or saved?
In message , VanguardLH
writes: J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote: Occasionally, I find I can only move the pointer horizontally or vertically (not diagonally). I'm pretty sure this is triggered by some action on my part. I can usually return it to normal by scribbling with Ctrl pressed. Tried rebooting into Windows' safe mode and retest touchpad operation to eliminate any interferrence possible from startup programs? I've seen where a background program interferred with mouse positioning. It's not a startup prog.; the pad is always working how I want it after a boot. I "know" that the changes to how it works are triggered by some action on my part - and they're designed to be; for example, the switching to only moving horizontally or vertically is intended to be triggerable by a user action, for use in (say) drawing prog.s where you might _want_ to limit the pointer movement to horizontal or vertical. I've forgotten what triggers it - possibly something like sliding in the scrollwheel area while holding shift key down, or something like that; I could find it again by looking in the touchpad control area, which tells me. The thing is, whatever it is, it's something that's - for _me_ - too easy to trigger accidentally. So I was hoping someone knew a way to prevent it happening. (I don't _think_ I've ever wanted the X-Y only limitation on movement; if I did, I wouldn't mind having to remove a lock.) In the touchpad setup, there are probably hot zones defined, like along the rightside for vertical scrolling and along the bottom for horizontal scrolling. Been too long since I last used my laptop but recall it had other hotspots, and special meanings for multiple taps (e.g., 3 taps for dragging) or 2-finger modes. Try disabling those special use zones and special tap modes so the touchpad ONLY does positioning of the mouse cursor. If the problem goes away, could be you are accidentally multi-tapping or using a hotspot. I've tried - I've certainly turned off the scroll areas (by reducing the scroll hot areas to zero width), because I found those tended to cause unexpected scrolling. I don't _think_ I've got any hotspots left. How many mice or pointing devices are defined in Device Manager (devmgmt.msc)? Did you leave plugged in a USB transceiver for a mouse or keyboard? No, but good thought. -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf We no longer make things, but sell each other consultancy on how to run consulatancies better. (Michael Cross, Computing 1999-3-4 [p. 28].) |
#6
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Can touchpad settings be locked, or saved?
On Mon, 21 May 2018 19:47:20 +0200, "R.Wieser"
wrote: J.P. , Touchpads ? I hate them, I turn them off and plug in a real mouse !... Jokes aside... It's not a joke--I also hate them and plug in a real mouse. Why? For the same reason I hate trackballs. What's best for any of us is what we are used to. If a touchpad or trackball is unfamiliar, it is awkward and difficult to use. And vice-versa. |
#7
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Can touchpad settings be locked, or saved?
In message , Ken Blake
writes: On Mon, 21 May 2018 19:47:20 +0200, "R.Wieser" wrote: J.P. , Touchpads ? I hate them, I turn them off and plug in a real mouse !... Jokes aside... It's not a joke--I also hate them and plug in a real mouse. The joke was, I'd started my original post with something like "for those who react to anything mentioning touchpads by saying you hate them, unplug them, and plug in a real mouse - please don't bother." So R. Wieser started his reply by facetiously saying just that (but then did go on to try to address the problem I had). Why? For the same reason I hate trackballs. What's best for any of us is what we are used to. If a touchpad or trackball is unfamiliar, it is awkward and difficult to use. And vice-versa. Actually, I find I can use all three (though haven't used a trackball for a while [I did once have a tiny one that sat round my index finger and was operated with a thumb]); there are a few things that each does well, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say there are a few things that each is less than optimum for. Given that most laptops/netbooks these days come with a trackpad/touchpad, and where _I_ use them doesn't have an adjacent space for using a mouse (I often have it literally on my lap), I find the pad serves my purposes most of the time. The problem is that there are ways of changing its behaviour, which are made easy to do, and I sometimes trigger them accidentally: I was wondering if there was a way of making them more difficult to invoke (or, failing that, some way of restoring the previous settings that was easier than reversing the change). Some suggestions have been made. -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf "If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law." - Winston Churchill. |
#8
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Can touchpad settings be locked, or saved?
On Tue, 22 May 2018 18:11:07 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
wrote: In message , Ken Blake writes: On Mon, 21 May 2018 19:47:20 +0200, "R.Wieser" wrote: J.P. , Touchpads ? I hate them, I turn them off and plug in a real mouse !... Jokes aside... It's not a joke--I also hate them and plug in a real mouse. The joke was, I'd started my original post with something like "for those who react to anything mentioning touchpads by saying you hate them, unplug them, and plug in a real mouse - please don't bother." So R. Wieser started his reply by facetiously saying just that (but then did go on to try to address the problem I had). Why? For the same reason I hate trackballs. What's best for any of us is what we are used to. If a touchpad or trackball is unfamiliar, it is awkward and difficult to use. And vice-versa. Actually, I find I can use all three I can too. But that doesn't mean I like it. (though haven't used a trackball for a while [I did once have a tiny one that sat round my index finger and was operated with a thumb]); there are a few things that each does well, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say there are a few things that each is less than optimum for. To me a trackball is the worst of the three. I keep trying to move it, as I do a mouse. |
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