Into Windows

  • Home
  • Windows 11
  • Windows 10
  • Windows 7
  • Privacy
You are here: Home » Windows 8 Guides » Enable or Disable Touch Screen In Windows 8.1

Enable or Disable Touch Screen In Windows 8.1

Last Updated on September 25, 2020 by admin 27 Comments

Almost all Windows 8 tablets come with decent hardware and one or more USB ports. These USB ports are helpful when you are in a good mood to play some serious games that are not optimized for multi-touch displays. To avoid accidentally touching the screen, you may want to temporarily disable the touch screen (touch input) after connecting the keyboard and mouse to the tablet.

When the touch screen is in a disabled state, the display will behave just like any other normal non-touch display. Windows 8 provides a simple way to temporarily disable the touch screen. To disable or enable the touch screen to follow the steps given below.

To disable the touch screen:

Step 1: Switch to Start screen. In the Start screen, tap on Control Panel tile to launch the Metro style Control Panel.

Enable or Disable Touch Screen In Windows 8

Step 2: In the left pane of Control Panel, tap on More settings to open the good old Control Panel.

Enable or Disable Touch Screen In Windows 8 Step2

Step 3: Here, navigate to Hardware and Sound and then Pen and Touch. Users who have enabled small icons in Control Panel can directly tap on Pen and Touch option.

Enable or Disable Touch Screen In Windows 8 Step3

Enable or Disable Touch Screen In Windows 8 Step6

Step 4: In the Pen and Touch dialog, switch to Touch tab. Here, disable Use your finger as an input device option. Tap Apply button. You are done. You have just disabled the touch input! From now on the touch screen will not respond for the touch input.

Enable or Disable Touch Screen In Windows 8 Step7

To enable the touch screen:

Method 1:

Step 1: Connect a USB keyboard or mouse to the tablet. Go to Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Pen and Touch.

Step 2: Enable Use your finger as an input device option. Click the Apply button to enable the touch screen.

Method 2: Use this method only if your tablet doesn’t have USB ports

Step 1: Press and hold the power button to shut down the tablet.

Step 2: After shutting down the tablet, press the power button again to switch on the tablet and boot into Windows 8. You should now be able to use the touch screen.

WARNING: Please save all your work before disabling the touch input. Once the touch input is disabled, you will need to connect either a dock, keyboard or mouse to enable the touch input again.

If you are on Windows 10, refer to our how to disable the touch screen in Windows 10 guide.

Filed Under: Windows 8 Guides Tagged: Windows 8

Related Posts

  • Disable Windows 8 Start Screen
  • Windows 8 Touch Gestures
  • How To Quickly Disable Touch Screen Input In Windows 10/8.1
  • How To Disable Touch Input In Windows 8
  • How To Disable Touch Keyboard Sound In Windows 8
  • How To Disable Lock Screen In Windows 8

Comments

  1. andre says

    March 27, 2018 at 8:16 pm

    Someone pls help me I updated something and after the restart my screen couldn’t work any longer since this morning. Surface RT tablet

  2. ITEngineer says

    January 23, 2018 at 12:00 am

    DOES NOT WORK on WINDOWS 10 – NO SUCH check box on the Pen and Touch dialog for Using finger as mouse. It just assumes that you will. Cannot be disabled through GUI. Thank you M$ again.

  3. jesus berumen says

    October 20, 2017 at 10:42 pm

    how can I enable the primary and secondary buttons on my touch pad my lap top model is a C-55 Toshiba
    touch pad works fine but the button function doesn’t respond

  4. Simon Nomis says

    July 5, 2017 at 4:39 pm

    Simplest way I found is to use this little app called TouchDisable found here zardssoft.96.lt

  5. FRANCIS AUGUSTINE says

    May 24, 2017 at 4:18 pm

    please i didnt see the icon USE YOUR FINGER FOR SCREEN TOUCH and ia m using an ASUS VIVOBOOK LAPTOP please help me

  6. Scott Epperson says

    March 2, 2017 at 5:21 pm

    Work around solution for enable/disable touch screen for Windows 8.1
    – eject removable drive to enable touch screen function

    Note: Missing toggle “use your finger for input device” under pen and touch menu was killed due to lack of sleep and proper diet during software V8.1 upgrade. Please allow for 3rd world new hires to complete 1st year integration & training modules during departmental reorganization and political correctness training. Thanks for your patients and understanding.

  7. yash kumar says

    September 28, 2016 at 1:03 pm

    I have a lenovo C260. It is available in touch but I can not find the tablet PC setting in window 8.1 and I could not also find in my computer pen and touch.

    plz help me.

  8. Kai says

    June 14, 2016 at 11:40 pm

    There are no tabs in the ‘Pen and Touch’ window on my computer, and no option for disabling/enabling the touchscreen. I have an ASUS laptop; I would like to disable the touchscreen. Any help?

  9. Simone says

    February 22, 2016 at 8:29 am

    went to hardware and sound did not see pen and touch need help don’t no what else to do

  10. Skye says

    April 6, 2015 at 9:51 pm

    Hi, it seems that VMWare Player disabled my touchscreen on my Toshiba Satellite C55 and I can’t seem to enable it again. I was trying to emulate Windows XP when a message popped up and said something like “Easy Access has disabled the touchscreen ability on your PC”. I have tried to fix it with no results. I uninstalled VMWare Player in hopes that it would restore my touchscreen, but it didn’t. Is there a way to get my touchscreen back, or is it gone for good? Should I send it in for repairs? Please reply!

  11. raghunandan grover says

    January 29, 2015 at 3:41 am

    just put your laptop into sleep mode and then on, it will simply turn on your touch screen option automatically.

  12. Charles says

    January 26, 2015 at 6:36 am

    I got my computer yesterday and all I have done is plugged it into my Samsung monitor, then a couple hours later I unplugged it from my monitor and the touch screen was not working, is there any way to re-enable the touch screen?
    I have an ASUS notebook 2 in 1.

  13. Angel says

    October 28, 2014 at 11:53 am

    The Method 2 was the only one that worked, when my computer had more than one USB port

  14. Peter says

    March 14, 2014 at 5:46 am

    Go To 2Device Manager in 1Control Panels, there under 3HID devices, find 4HID Touch Screen, go to its 5Driver tab, and 6Deactivate. ( I hope the designation of the #six steps in english is correct.)

  15. curtis larson says

    February 18, 2014 at 3:05 am

    I hsve tried all the suggested fixes thru the control panel hardware and sounds and to no avail. There seem to be no obvious way to select the finger touch activate or deactivate touch screen on my Lenovo Yoga 2.Only second day with new computer but reading the problems of others it is very discouraging.

  16. jen says

    December 7, 2013 at 12:22 pm

    I having prob. With my touch screen i could’nt enable it i tried once the prescribe how to enable (pen and touch) but it did’nt work. I wathed all thw video how to do it but its useless my pen and touch ther is no icon for (use your finger for input device) what im gonna do?

  17. Hoehne says

    September 19, 2013 at 2:10 pm

    Similar as in the remarks above in the pen and touch control panel only single touch is addressed. I need to disable multi-touch. What to do?

  18. Yogurt says

    April 3, 2013 at 8:53 pm

    Mine doesn’t even let me go into the pen and touch setting, and it seems like nobody can do it due to all of the comments saying they can’t do it. PLEASE REPLY ON THIS!

  19. none says

    March 19, 2013 at 4:41 am

    I have a lenovo yoga and there is no touch tab under pen and touch, please halp

  20. Richard Kramer says

    March 2, 2013 at 3:06 am

    I have a Samsung ATIV 500T tablet with the keyboard/dock. For some reason, the touch screen is no longer working. As this thread points out, in the final version of Windows 8, the checkbox to enable using finger as input device is not there. How can I e-enable my touch screen?

  21. kerwin says

    March 1, 2013 at 10:15 am

    went to hardware and sound did not see pen and touch need help don’t no what else to do

  22. kerwin says

    March 1, 2013 at 9:40 am

    hey need help went in control panel hardware and sound but pen and touch aint in there don’t no what else to try?

  23. Trent says

    December 18, 2012 at 4:40 am

    What a major screw up.. they removed the tab in windows 8 so touch can’t be disabled.. So now I’m not upgrading my tablet from windows 7. I get my clients to sign contracts on the tablet.. teaching every user how to use the pen when touch is enabled is absolutely frustrating.. I like windows 8 for my touch tablet but now I can’t upgrade. What a screw up. I guess I’ll keep using windows 7

  24. Ben Lochtenbergh says

    December 17, 2012 at 12:14 pm

    My Control Panel Pen and Touch has only 3 tabs. The Touch tab has no check box for “Use your finger as input device” on my new TechNet downloaded Windows 8. The example here showing to turn this check box on has 2 more tabs.
    My problem: Using my finger as input device causes a sound each click, because I turned that option on, but no action. Mouse and Pen work fine. The finger worked in Windows 8 Developer edition and Windows 7 on my Lenovo X220T.

  25. Admin says

    June 25, 2012 at 6:07 pm

    It seems that Microsoft has removed the option in latest builds. The option was available in Windows 8 Developer Preview build.

  26. jalewis says

    June 2, 2012 at 11:14 pm

    Doesn’t work on release preview either.

  27. carlos says

    March 2, 2012 at 7:58 am

    This does not work in windows consumer preview, any alternatives?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Advertisements

Search Into Windows

Recent posts

  • 5 Ways To Go To Desktop In Windows 11
  • How To Show Battery Percentage On Taskbar In Windows 11
  • Fix: AMD Software Adrenalin Edition Not Opening In Windows 11
  • How To Show Year On Windows 11 Taskbar
  • Windows 11 24H2 Is Available Now
  • How To Create 7z & TAR Files In Windows 11 Without Using Additional Apps
  • How To Remove Bell Icon From Taskbar In Windows 11
  • How To Reinstall Windows 11 Without Losing Apps And Files
  • How To Hide/Show Files & Icons On Desktop In Windows 10/11
  • How To Show Hidden Icons On Taskbar In Windows 11

About us

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 · Into Windows