How do I disable a Lenovo touchpad?

If, like me, you’re a bit of Lenovo ThinkPad fanboy, one of the reasons you might love them so much is the red TrackPoint nipple in the centre of the keyboard, which acts like a mouse. If you only ever want to use the TrackPoint and don’t ever use the touchpad, you might as well disable it to avoid accidental brushes with your palm sending the cursor haywire. So how do you disable a Lenovo touchpad?

Disable a Lenovo touchpad

1. In the Windows 10 search bar, search for “mouse” and open the mouse settings screen
2. If a screen appears with “Additional Mouse Settings” in the top right-hand corner, click on that link (if not, see “approach two” below)
3. On the window that appears, uncheck the box that says Enable touchpad and click Apply

Note that disabling the touchpad does not disable the buttons above it, which you still need to use with the TrackPoint.

On the flip side, if you can’t stand the TrackPoint and can never see yourself fiddling with that red nipple, the TrackPoint can be disabled from the same screen.

Disable a Lenovo touchpad: approach two

If you have a more modern Lenovo ThinkPad, then entering “mouse” into the Windows 10 search bar will show a setting like this:

Click on Touchpad (below Mouse on the left-hand side) and you’ll see a simple blue button underneath “Touchpad”. Click it ones and it will toggle from on to off.

It’s worth exploring the other options here. For instance, there’s a handy way to automatically switch off the touchpad when a mouse is connected.

Now read this: What is Lenovo Vantage? Should I get rid of it?