There are two different ways to disable the touch screen on your Surface Pro. It can be done with both the Device Manager and the Windows Registry. However, it is important to be careful to ensure you don’t accidentally disable the wrong thing.
Whether you are dealing with annoying phantom touches on your screen that are interrupting your productivity, want better battery life, or simply never use it, there are many reasons why you may want to turn off the touch screen on your Surface Pro.
This guide is going to take a closer look at exactly how you can disable this feature of your Surface Pro.
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Key Takeaways
- Normally used to temporarily turn off the touch screen on your Surface Pro, using the Device Manager is a simple way to disable this feature.
- If you want to permanently turn off the touch screen, you need to do so using the Windows Registry.
- No matter which method you use, make sure you don’t disable or modify the wrong thing, as it could cause serious problems within your system and may even stop it from working how it should be.
Disabling the Touch Screen With the Device Manager
The first method for turning off the touch screen is by using the Device Manager. You can open the Device Manager by searching for it in the Start menu, or by pressing the Windows key + X and then selecting Device Manager from the options.
Once there, you need to click on and expand Human Interface Devices, and locate HID-compliant touch screen from the results. Next, you need to right click and select disable. When you want to enable the touch screen again, follow the same steps and choose enable.
Disabling the Touch Screen With the Windows Registry
While the first method is generally used by many, it is only a temporary solution as the touch screen will often be re-enabled when the device is restarted. If you want to permanently disable the touch screen, then you will need to use the Windows Registry.
The first step is to open the Registry editor by pressing the Windows key + R, and entering regedit. Then, type (or copy and paste) into the search bar:
Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Wisp\Touch\
Next, you need to create a new DWORD value (by right-clicking on the white space) and name it TouchGate. Ensure that the value for this particular entry is 0, and then restart your computer to ensure that the change is applied and your touch screen will no longer work.
After a while, if you decide to want to enable the touch screen once again, all you need to do is change the value from 0 to 1.
If you decide to use this method, you need to be careful. If you aren’t, you could end up disabling or changing a feature that is crucial to the operation of your device, and could stop it from working entirely. Always check you are changing the right entry to the right value.
Final Thoughts
Whether you never use the touch screen on your Surface Pro, or you are getting frustrating phantom touches that interrupt your work, there are several reasons why you may want to turn off the touch screen on your Surface Pro and use it like a laptop.
We hope that this guide has helped you learn more about the methods that you can use to disable the touch screen on your Surface Pro.
Is there anything you feel we should have included in this guide but didn’t? If so, let us know in a comment below!
