Two of our readers recently reported about touchpad issues that they have been experiencing after upgrading to Windows 10. One user is unable to activate and use touchpad gestures after upgrading to Windows 10 from Windows 8.1, while the touchpad itself is not working for the other user.
In this article, we will discuss all the ways out there to overcome touchpad issues in Windows 10.
Method 1 of 7
Restart your PC
This might sound stupid, but many of the Windows issues vanish after a reboot. So restart your Windows 10 PC once, and then check if the touchpad is working.
And if you’re wondering how to restart a notebook with a dead touchpad, simultaneously press the Windows logo and X keys to open the power user menu, press U key on the keyboard, and then press R key to perform a restart.
Method 2 of 7
Check touchpad settings, and turn on the hotkey
Some laptops include a dedicated hotkey on the keyboard to turn on or off the touchpad. Make sure that the touchpad is not turned off using the hotkey.
Check touchpad settings
Did you know that most touchpad drivers offer an option to turn off or disable the touchpad? For instance, for my Synaptics touchpad on ThinkPad T450s, there is an option under Mouse properties to turn off the touchpad as well as trackpoint.
You can open Mouse properties by typing Main.cpl in Start menu search box and then press Enter key. For some notebooks or touchpads, the option to turn on or off the touchpad might be located under Touchpad Control Panel (for instance, Synaptics Control Panel).
Please also double-check if there is a physical switch to turn off the touchpad.
Method 3 of 7
Make sure that the touchpad driver is installed
Although some touchpads will work out of the box without requiring additional drivers, if the touchpad or touchpad gestures are not working, please make sure that the latest version of the touchpad driver is installed on your Windows 10 notebook. To do so, first, check the current version of the driver installed on your Windows 10 PC and then visit the manufacturer’s website to check the version number.
Visit your laptop manufacturer’s website, download and install the Windows 10 compatible driver. If your notebook’s manufacturer is not offering a touchpad driver for Windows 10, try to download and install Windows 8.1 compatible drivers. And to
Method 4 of 7
Reinstall the driver
If the touchpad is not working and you are sure that the newest version of the driver is installed (see how to check the driver version), try reinstalling the driver. To do so, you need to uninstall the current driver first, download the newest version of the driver, and then install the new one.
Method 5 of 7
Rollback the driver
Many users often experience issues after updating to a newer version of the touchpad driver. If you recently updated the driver to the latest version (or drive is automatically updated by Windows 10) and the touchpad stopped working or not functioning since then, you can roll back to the previous version of the driver. Please refer to our how to rollback to the previous version of a driver for step-by-step directions.
Method 6 of 7
Restore Windows 10 to a previous date
If the touchpad was working great a couple of days ago and you are not sure what went wrong, you can use the Restore point feature to restore your PC to a previous date. Please refer to our how to restore your Windows 10 PC to an earlier date guide for step-by-step instructions.
Method 7 of 7
Check if auto turn off is enabled
If you have connected a mouse to the laptop, please disconnect the mouse and then check if the touchpad or trackpad works because it’s possible to configure Windows 10 automatically turn off the touchpad when a mouse is connected. Please refer to our how to automatically turn off the touchpad when a mouse is connected article for detailed information.
If the above methods are not working for you, have a chat with Microsoft support using the built-in Contact support app for free.
l3nix says
I had an issue where my 2 finger tap = right click no longer worked after upgrading to windows 10. It wasn’t showing up as an option in the properties neither. After some research and because i have some experience with the registry, i was able to make 1 or 2 changes that brought back those options. Oddest thing. A