It’s a well-known fact that it is almost impossible to use a laptop computer with a faulty touchpad. And lately, Windows 11 users have been facing their share of issues with the touchpad. Either the cursor freezes or lags, or it stops working altogether.

All of these issues not only completely ruin the experience of using a PC but they also bring down your productivity. Thankfully, typically in all of the documented cases, the issues were software-related and hence, easily diagnosable.

We have listed the topmost ways that are most likely to resolve the issue on your computer. We will start with the elementary fixes and gradually move on to more advanced ones.

1. Toggle the Physical Touchpad Lock Key on your Keyboard

On all modern laptop computers, there’s a physical key to disable the touchpad of your device. Hence, if you face this issue on your laptop computer, it is worth checking if the toggle has not been turned on accidentally.

Usually, the key resides on one of the function keys (F1-F12). One of the key identifiers is a ‘crossed touchpad icon’ on the key. Moreover, typically, the key also has a little light on it to indicate its ‘On/Off’ status.

Try pressing the key once to toggle it off. If you do not have the function lock active on your machine, press and hold the Fn key on your keyboard and then press the touchpad lock key to activate the touchpad.

2. Make Sure the Touchpad is Enabled from the Settings App

In most modern laptop computers, Windows allows users to completely turn off the touchpad if they wish to do so. Hence, if you own a laptop computer, it is imperative that you check that you haven’t accidentally turned off the touchpad for your machine.

First, head to the Start Menu and click on the ‘Settings’ tile to proceed.

Then, click on the ‘Bluetooth & devices’ tab from the left sidebar to continue.

If your touchpad isn’t working at all, use the arrow keys and the tab key on your keyboard to navigate to the options.

Next, click on the ‘Devices’ tile to proceed.

After that, locate and click on the ‘Touchpad’ tile.

On the next screen, click on the toggle switch following the ‘Touchpad’ option to bring it to the ‘On’ position.

3. Run the Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter

Another method to fix the touchpad issue on your computer is to run the Hardware and Device Troubleshooter which scans your PC for potential issues that might be causing your hardware to behave unexpectedly.

Head to the Start Menu and type Terminal to perform a search. Then, from the search results, right-click on the ‘Terminal’ tile and choose the ‘Run as administrator’ option.

Now, a UAC (User Account Control) window will appear on your screen. If you are not logged in with an admin account, enter the credentials for one. Otherwise, click on the ‘Yes’ button to proceed.

After that, click on the ‘chevron’ (downward arrow) icon and then click on the ‘Command Prompt’ option from the menu.

Then, type the below-mentioned command in the window and hit Enter to proceed. This will open a new window on your screen.

msdt.exe -id DeviceDiagnostic

Now, click on the ‘Next’ button to proceed.

If the troubleshooter identifies any issue, click on the ‘Apply this fix’ option to resolve the problem.

4. Update or Roll Back Mouse Driver

If you have just recently updated your mouse driver, rolling it back to the previous version can help. On the other side, if it has been a while since you updated the driver, updating might fix the issue for you.

To update the mouse driver, head to the Start Menu and type Device to perform a search. Then, from the search results, click on the ‘Device Manager’ tile to continue.

Next, from the Device Manager window, double-click on the ‘Mice and other pointing devices’ option to expand the section. Then, right-click on the ‘Touchpad Driver’ option.

From the context menu, click on the ‘Update driver’ option to continue. This will open a separate window on your screen.

Now, from the separately opened window, click on the ‘Search automatically for drivers’ option if you wish to let Windows download drivers automatically for you. Otherwise, click on the ‘Browse my computer for drivers’ option if you have already downloaded a driver package.

If you are here to roll back the mouse driver, right-click on the ‘Touchpad driver’ option and click on the ‘Properties’ option.

Then, click on the ‘Driver’ tab and then click the ‘Roll Back Driver’ button.

After updating or rolling back, restart your PC from the Start Menu. Once restarted, check if the issue has been resolved.

5. Disable the Tablet Mode

Note: This method is only applicable to users who are using a hybrid device such as Microsoft Surface or similar devices that have a detachable keyboard.

If you own one of the hybrid Windows devices that has a detachable keyboard, as soon as you detach it, the machine switches to the ‘Tablet Mode’ where the cursor is disabled since the device will be relying majorly on touch input. Hence, there could be a possibility of ‘Tablet Mode’ being turned on even after connecting the keyboard.

Since there is no manual way to disable the Tablet mode on a Windows 11 device, you will have to restart the device in order to let itself calibrate according to the peripherals connected to the machine.

To restart, first, connect your device to a keyboard if not already connected. Then, press the Alt+F4 keys together on your keyboard to bring up the ‘Shut Down Wizard’ on your screen.

Next, press the Down Arrow key till the drop-down menu displays the ‘Restart’ option. Then press the Tab key to shift cursor focus to the ‘OK’ button. Next, hit Enter on your keyboard to restart the computer.

6. Adjust Mouse Sensitivity and Disable Enhanced Pointer Precision

If you are sensing stuttering, it could also be a mouse sensitivity issue. All you need to do is adjust the sensitivity to get the mouse working properly again.

First, head to the Start Menu and click on the ‘Settings’ tile or use the Windows + I keyboard shortcut.

After that, make sure you have selected the ‘Bluetooth & devices’ tab from the left sidebar.

Next, click on the ‘Mouse’ tab from the right section of the screen.

Now, stretch the slider following the ‘Mouse pointer speed’ to your farthest right.

To disable enhanced pointer precision, on the ‘Mouse’ settings page, locate and click on the ‘Additional mouse settings’ tile. This will open a new window on the screen.

Now, click on the checkbox preceding the ‘Enhance pointer precision’ option to uncheck.

After that, click on the ‘Apply’ and ‘OK’ buttons respectively to save the changes.

7. Enable Microsoft Keyboard Filter Service

Since all processes are connected with a background service that helps them run properly, many of the Windows 11 users found two specific services that were stopped to be the culprit of the touchpad not working issue.

First, head to the Start Menu and type Services to perform a search. Then, from the search results, click on the ‘Services’ tile.

Now, locate the ‘Microsoft Keyboard Filter’ service, and double-click on it. This will open a separate window on your screen.

Then, click on the dropdown menu followed by ‘Startup type’ and choose the ‘Automatic’ option and click on the ‘Apply’ and ‘OK’ buttons to save the changes.

Repeat the same process with the ‘Tablet PC Input Service’ option from the list.

Once done, restart your PC and check if the issue has been resolved.

8. Roll Back to a System Restore Point

If you have recently installed software or third-party service on your Windows PC, it could also be the root cause of the issue. But if you had recently made a System Restore point when the touchpad was working fine, you can simply restore your PC and get it working again.

First, head to the Start Menu and type Control to perform a search. Then, from the search results, click on the ‘Control Panel’ tile.

Next, press Tab to bring focus to the grid and navigate to the ‘Recovery’ tile and press Enter to proceed.

Then, click on the ‘Open System Restore’ button to continue. A new window will appear on your screen.

Now, from the separately opened window, hit the ‘Next’ button.

All created system restore points will be listed on the screen. Click to select the desired one and then click on the ‘Next’ button to initiate the rolling back process.

Next, a list of drives that will be impacted by the rollback will be displayed along with the timestamp of the restore point created. You can also check the programs that will be affected; click on the ‘Scan for the affected programs’ button. A new window will appear on the screen.

On the new window, you can view the programs that will be deleted and the ones that will be restored (since no programs will be affected on the test PC, the list in the screenshot is empty). Click on the ‘Close’ button to proceed.

Finally, click on the ‘Finish’ button to initiate the process and check if the issue was resolved.

9. Tweak Windows Registry

Note: The Registry address may vary from one manufacturer to another, however, the process stays largely the same.

First, head to the Start Menu and type Registry Editor to perform a search. Then, from the search results click on the ‘Registry Editor’ tile to proceed.

Then, navigate to the below-mentioned address using the address bar present at the top of the window.

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Synaptics\SynTP\Install

After that, double-click on the ‘DeleteUserSettingsOnUpgrade’ file that is on the right-hand side panel.

In case the file is not present, in the directory, right-click in the empty space and hover over the new option. Then, click on the ‘DWORD’ option.

After that, rename the file to ‘DeleteUserSettingsOnUpgrade’ and double-click on it to open.

Then, enter 0 in the ‘Value Data’ field and click on the ‘OK’ button. Then, restart your PC to let the changes take effect and check if the issue has been resolved.

10. Reset your PC

In case no method has been able to fix the issue on your PC, the last resort is to reset your PC. Thankfully, you will not lose your personal files and folders. However, resetting your PC will remove all the programs that you have installed and also bring all the settings to their default configuration.

To reset your PC, head to the Start Menu, and click on the ‘Settings’ tile.

After that, from the Settings window, make sure you have selected the ‘System’ tab present on the left sidebar.

Then, from the right section of the window, scroll down to locate and click on the ‘Recovery’ tile to proceed.

Then, on the ‘Recovery’ settings screen, locate the ‘Reset this PC’ tile and click on the ‘Reset PC’ button present on the far right edge of the tile to proceed. This will open a separate window on your screen.

Now, from the separately opened window, click on the ‘Keep my files’ tile to proceed. In case you wish to remove all your personal files as well then reset, click on the ‘Remove everything’ option.

On the next screen, you will need to choose a method for reinstalling the operating system on your machine. Since there could be an issue with the copy already present in your system, we recommend that you click on the ‘Cloud download’ option.

Note: ‘Cloud download’ will require an active internet connection and will consume upwards of 4GB of data.

After that, Windows will list the settings that you have chosen. In case you wish to change any of it, click on the ‘Change settings’ option to continue.

If you chose to change the settings, you can configure the following settings on the next screen. You can choose to not restore the apps and settings by clicking on the toggle switch present under the ‘Restore preinstalled apps?’ option and bringing it to the ‘No’ position. Additionally, you can switch from the Cloud download to local installation by clicking on the toggle switch method. Once adjusted according to your preference, click on the ‘Confirm’ button to proceed.

After that from the main window, click on the ‘Next’ button to continue.

In case your PC was updated recently, you will receive a message on the screen stating that you will not be able to roll back once you reset the PC. To continue, click on the ‘Next’ button.

After that, Windows will list out all the impacts resetting your PC will have on your system. Read them carefully and click on the ‘Reset’ button to commence the resetting process.

There you go, people. One of the above-mentioned methods is bound to resolve the touchpad issues on your Windows 11 PC and get things working like clockwork again.