How to Disable Touchscreen in Windows 10 (3 Methods Explained)

Touchscreens are increasingly common on Windows devices, thanks to devices like the Surface Laptop Go and the new Surface Pro 7+. However, the jury is still out on whether it helps productivity on laptops with regular form factors. So, if you are looking for a way to disable or turn off the touchscreen functionality on your Windows 10 laptop, look no further. In this article, we will show you how to permanently disable (turn off) or enable the touchscreen in Windows 10 using Device Manager (devmgmt), PowerShell, Command Prompt (cmd), and Windows Registry (regedit).

Disable Touchscreen on Windows 10 Laptops

This article will show you how to temporarily or permanently disable the touchscreen functionality on your Windows 10 laptop, convertible or ultrabook computer. If you change your mind and want to try the feature one more time, you can re-enable the feature by taking your steps back and going through the same settings and configuration options. Without further delay, let’s explore three different ways to disable or turn off the touchscreen functionality on your Windows 10 computer.

Method 1: Using Device Manager

Using Device Manager is the easiest way to enable or disable the touch functionality of your Windows 10 device. You can do it in a few simple clicks without having to use the command line or messing around with the Windows Registry.

• First, right-click the Start button (or press Windows key + X simultaneously) and select ‘Device Manager’ from the drop-down menu.

Note: You can also access the Windows Device Manager from the Command Prompt and Run dialog. To do this, type ‘devmgmt.msc’ (without quotes) and press Enter. Another way to access Device Manager is via Control Panel..

• In the Device Manager Window, double click on ‘Human Interface Devices’ to expand it.

• Now right click on ‘HID compatible touchscreen’ and select ‘Disable device’. Confirm when prompted. The touch screen function will be disabled and you can tap the screen to confirm.

• To re-enable the function, right-click on the same entry and select ‘Enable device’. The feature will be re-enabled and you will not receive a warning this time.

This much! That’s how easy it is to enable or disable touchscreen functionality on Windows 10 laptops using Device Manager.

Method 2: Using PowerShell

Introduced with Windows 8, PowerShell is a command line shell that lets you perform a number of tweaks and changes in Windows 10, including enabling and disabling the touchscreen. You can access it from the same menu as described in Method 1.

• Right-click the start button (or press Windows key + X simultaneously) and select ‘Windows PowerShell (Admin)’ from the drop-down menu.

• Enter the following command in the PowerShell window: Get-PnpDevice | Where-Object {$_.FriendlyName -like ‘*touch screen*’} | Disable-PnpDevice -Confirm:$false. Now press Enter.

• To re-enable the touchscreen functionality, execute the following command in PowerShell: Get-PnpDevice | Where-Object {$_.FriendlyName -like '*touch screen*'} | Enable-PnpDevice -Confirm:$false

Now you know not only how to disable the touchscreen functionality using PowerShell on Windows 10 devices, but also how to enable it using the powerful command line tool.

Method 3: Using the Windows Registry (Permanent Method)

Finally, you can also use the good old Windows Registry to enable or disable the touchscreen in Windows 10. As of now, this is the only permanent method to disable the touchscreen on your Windows 10 PC. This is because Microsoft is known to re-enable the feature in every major update if it was turned off using other methods.

• Open the Windows Registry Editor. To do this, search for “regedit” in the Windows Search Bar and click on the first result.

• Using the left pane of the Registry Editor window, navigate to the following key: Computer\HKEY_Current_USER\Software\Microsoft\Wisp\Touch

Note: The above-mentioned option disables (turns off) the touchscreen functionality for the current user only. To disable the feature for all user accounts on that computer “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE” in its place “HKEY_CURRENT_USER” as your top folder.

• Right click anywhere in the open area in the right pane and select ‘New > DWORD (32-bit) Value’ in the right pane and name it Touch Door (without quotes).

Note: If you selected LOCAL_MACHINE instead of CURRENT_USER in the previous step, you will find an available ‘TouchGate’ entry. In this case, just go to the next step.

• The new key (in case of CURRENT_USER) should have the hexadecimal value “0” by default. [Data=0x00000000 (0)]. In the LOCAL_MACHINE state, double-click the existing key to change the value to 0. In either case, restart the computer for the change to take effect.

• You can re-enable the touchscreen function by changing the hexadecimal value to 1 (0 = touch disabled, 1 = touch enabled). Restart for the change to take effect.

Here it is. Now you know three different ways to disable and enable touchscreen functionality on Windows 10 devices.

Easily Turn Off Touchscreen in Windows 10

Touchscreen laptops have been common on the premium end of the laptop market for some time, and now such devices are now reaching the mid-range segment. However, although Microsoft seems pretty keen on this one., not everyone finds this feature helpful. Indeed, some people believe that this creates unnecessary hassle on regular laptops and ultrabooks. So, if you belong to this group, we hope you found this guide helpful.

In the meantime, if you want to get more relief from such inconveniences on your computer, check out our detailed guides on how to disable notifications in Windows 10 and remove ads from Windows 10. Easily disable User Account Control (UAC) in Windows 10 to further avoid annoying pop-ups and distractions. You can also check out our Windows 10 tips and tricks for better control of your PC.