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.
Step 2: In the left pane of Control Panel, tap on More settings to open the good old Control Panel.
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.
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.
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.
andre says
Someone pls help me I updated something and after the restart my screen couldn’t work any longer since this morning. Surface RT tablet
ITEngineer says
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.
jesus berumen says
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
Simon Nomis says
Simplest way I found is to use this little app called TouchDisable found here zardssoft.96.lt
FRANCIS AUGUSTINE says
please i didnt see the icon USE YOUR FINGER FOR SCREEN TOUCH and ia m using an ASUS VIVOBOOK LAPTOP please help me
Scott Epperson says
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.
yash kumar says
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.
Kai says
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?
Simone says
went to hardware and sound did not see pen and touch need help don’t no what else to do
Skye says
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!
raghunandan grover says
just put your laptop into sleep mode and then on, it will simply turn on your touch screen option automatically.
Charles says
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.
Angel says
The Method 2 was the only one that worked, when my computer had more than one USB port
Peter says
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.)
curtis larson says
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.
jen says
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?
Hoehne says
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?
Yogurt says
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!
none says
I have a lenovo yoga and there is no touch tab under pen and touch, please halp
Richard Kramer says
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?
kerwin says
went to hardware and sound did not see pen and touch need help don’t no what else to do
kerwin says
hey need help went in control panel hardware and sound but pen and touch aint in there don’t no what else to try?
Trent says
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
Ben Lochtenbergh says
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.
Admin says
It seems that Microsoft has removed the option in latest builds. The option was available in Windows 8 Developer Preview build.
jalewis says
Doesn’t work on release preview either.
carlos says
This does not work in windows consumer preview, any alternatives?