Disabling TouchPad on Windows Laptop

By Maldalain, 7 August, 2025

Forum
Windows

Is there anyway I can assign keyboard shortcut to switch off the TouchPad? Or is there NVDA ad-on to disable the touchpad while NVDA is running?

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Comments

By Brian on Thursday, August 7, 2025 - 13:48

The add-on is called "input lock".
It can be found at the following link:
https://github.com/jmdaweb/inputLock/releases/tag/v1.19

A direct download link is at:
https://github.com/jmdaweb/inputLock/releases/download/v1.19/inputLock-1.19.nvda-addon

You can lock your system by default with the following shortcut:
NVDA plus alt plus 'i'.

If you use an actual mouse (not a trackpad), you can set up NVDA to automatically lock that when NVDA starts.
If you go into input gestures through the NVDA GUI, you can assign a shortcut to lock the trackpad.
This is what I use it for. Remember track pads and a mouse Are two different devices. Even though they have very similar functions.

The auto locking the mouse at start up is kind of redundant, because if you assign a shortcut to lock your trackpad, then reboot NVDA, or even your entire computer, when NVDA restarts, the track pedal will still be locked, until you press a shortcut again to unlock it.

Enjoy. 😀

Edited to update links.

By Maldalain on Thursday, August 7, 2025 - 14:35

I found another repo for the ad-on, the one provided in the comment did not work. Thanks again.

By Brian on Thursday, August 7, 2025 - 14:43

Hi,

I updated my initial post to reflect updated links. Now there is a direct download link as well as the repository for the latest build of Input Lock—v1.1.9 as of this writing.
I also should have mentioned that you can get this add-on directly from the NVDA add-on store from within NVDA's GUI, by pressing NVDA plus 'n', then 't', and finally 'a'.
This will open the add-on store where you can manage, update, add, and remove add-ons. Pressing Control plus Tab will get you to the download page where you can navigate through a rediculous list of add-ons.

Enjoy! 😃

By Chris Hill on Thursday, August 7, 2025 - 19:09

Many of the trackpads have a sys-tray app, and in those there may be a disable if external mouse is connected option. Then you just get an old wireless mouse dongle and you're set.

By Brian on Thursday, August 7, 2025 - 21:58

True, that does work. However, doing it through the screen reader means that you're not taking up one of your ports. 😅
Also, some laptops actually have a hardware button built into the keyboard specifically for Locking the trackpad. 😉