How in the Tech

Prevent random touches of the trackpad while typing

By Adam Myers ⋅ March 10, 2010 ⋅ Tags: Annoyances, Windows

Practically every laptop manufacturer ships with a trackpad or touchpad as the method of input for cursor movement and mouse clicks. Accepted form factor dictates that the trackpad be placed below the keyboard which certainly makes it convenient and efficient to switch between typing and mousing. However, that convenience comes at a price – at least for users like me. The trackpad placement also makes it quite easy to accidentally touch while typing. For example, on my main laptop the trackpad is situated in a way that the palm on my left hand can activate the top left-most portion of the pad if I’m left thumb gets a bit lazy. As I’m a left-handed typer – my left thumb is used to activate the spacebar, this situation occurs rather frequently. The onscreen cursor will jump positions in the document I’m working on, and suddenly my character composition is all over the place.

Does this affect you too? There are two options that can be explored to address this annoyance. Many trackpads have additional software installed that will allow them to become disabled the moment an external mouse is connected. This is logical but not always practical; a laptop is thought to be portable and having a surface for an external mouse isn’t always feasible. The second option is provided by Touchfreeze.

Touchfreeze is a free Windows utility that deactivates your trackpad when the keyboard is being utilized. This goes a great way in minimizing the chances of accidental cursor movements or mouse clicks. Touchfreeze is free and offers little frills outside of it’s main competency. Once installed, it sits in your tray and stays out of your way; providing it’s functionality immediately. Simple and effective, which are two of my main requirements when evaluating software.

Download Touchfreeze