This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Darlene Antonelli, MA. Darlene Antonelli is a Technology Writer and Editor for wikiHow. Darlene has experience teaching college courses, writing technology-related articles, and working hands-on in the technology field. She earned an MA in Writing from Rowan University in 2012 and wrote her thesis on online communities and the personalities curated in such communities.
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This wikiHow will teach you how to activate the touchpad on a Windows laptop if you disabled it or it's not working. You'll also find tips about how to activate your touchpad without a mouse and troubleshooting steps you can take on a Mac laptop.
Steps
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1Open your Windows Settings. You'll find the gear icon after you click the Start Menu icon.
- This method will only work if you can navigate menus. If you don't have an external mouse, you can also the keyboard--press the Windows key, type "touchpad," and press Enter, and the touchpad Settings menu will open. You can skip the next steps that use a mouse.
- Some laptops have a hotkey that activates/deactivates the touchpad, so check your laptop's manual to see if it has a FN + F1-12 hotkey that will enable it instead of going through the Settings > Touchpad menu.
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2Click Devices. This is usually in the second column next to an icon of a keyboard and speaker.Advertisement
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3Click Touchpad. You'll see this in the menu on the left side of the window next to an icon of a touchpad.
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4Click the switch to enable it under "Touchpad." You can also change the other settings for your touchpad here, including the cursor speed.
- If you're not using a mouse, you can tap the Tab key until the touchpad toggle switch is highlighted (usually 3 times), then tap the Space key to switch it on.[1]
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About This Article
1. Open Settings.
2. Click Devices.
3. Click Touchpad.
4. Click the switch to enable it under "Touchpad."
