Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with touchpad

Why does the cursor grab my web-page and scroll up (or down) by itself?

Rash — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 12:00:58 -0800

Why do windows on my laptop sometimes scroll by themselves, or via touchpad movements? XP newbie with newish Win XP Thinkpad having trouble with cursor and/or touchpad behavior.

I'd like to control scrolling only with the keyboard's arrow or PgUp/PgDn keys, or by dragging the scroll bar with my mouse or clicking its arrows.

And yet, something automagically kicks in with my new laptop -- the scrollbar (and page) moves up and down in tandem with my finger on the touch pad, sometimes even sailing away on its own, even though the cursor's nowhere near the scroll bar -- why?

'Tap to Click' is turned off under mouse -> touch if that's maybe a factor.

Two fingers are better than one.

Nonce — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 23:06:13 -0800

Tell me how to make this laptop, running Vista 64, do the Mac two-finger scroll.

OS-X-like touchpad acceleration under Linux?

korpios — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 11:05:56 -0800

Is there any way to get the standard OS X touchpad acceleration curve working under Linux? I've tried messing with the "synaptics" driver settings many different ways, but nothing yielded anything close to what I was looking for. In the latest round of my seemingly annual experiment of running Ubuntu on my MacBook (rev 2,1), I was pleased to get most of the way towards a usable experience. I managed to get all of the important hardware bits working reasonably well; only two things kept me from considering a permanent switch this time: my iPhone (a subject for another discussion), and the touchpad.

I love my MacBook's touchpad under OS X. I haven't used a mouse in ages; the acceleration curve is perfect, IMHO. Under Linux, however, you get three settings: minimum speed, maximum speed, and acceleration factor. No combination of these yields a smooth-feeling touchpad experience; movements inevitably end up feeling either jumpy or ridiculously slow. It would appear that OS X is using a proper curve, whereas Linux is using a simple acceleration cutoff.

That said: has anyone had better luck with getting the touchpad to behave under Linux as it does under OS X?

Way to Increase Mouse Pointer Speed?

drleary — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 21:31:48 -0800

Under Windows XP, is there a way to make the speed of the mouse pointer increase when you plugin a mouse, but decrease when you're just using the touchpad? Thanks!

Turning off double tap

chips ahoy — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 13:21:43 -0800

Is it possible to turn off "double tap" on my laptop's touchpad under Win XP? I keep accidentally clicking stuff. There's no setting for this in Control Panel > Mouse, and there's no tabletware in the task tray. Maybe there's a registry setting for this?

Any desktop touchpads apart from Cirque products?

dazzle — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 11:21:09 -0800

Does anyone know of any other desktop touchpads available for Windows (preferably Vista) other than the Cirque products? I am already using a Cirque SmartCat with serial connector but since I upgraded my PC I only have one serial port. The PS/2 - Serial converter works but not very well, and the latest Cirque drivers do not work with the converter at all, so I was wondering if there were any other touchpad products for a desktop PC.

Alternatives to trackpads?

arabelladragon — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 18:19:05 -0800

What are the alternatives to laptop touchpads that work without a flat surface? This is the only thing keeping me from buying a laptop: I've never been able to get touchpads to properly track my fingers (which are covered in layers of scar tissue). We're looking at hand-held trackballs but of course, there aren't any at the shops for us to actually examine.

I'm looking for something small with a thumb-driven ball that will work without a conveniently placed desk. We've found three types so far:
The Handheld Trackball TK-1200P is my favorite from the pictures, but it isn't sold in the US and it's a bit of a gamble without actually seeing it.
The Fellowes micro trac mouse gets mixed reviews.
There are a few which look like guns, but they seem as if they'd be hard to pick up and put down when swapping with keyboard. They also look like a portability pain.

Is there anything we're missing, or are there any that could be highly recommended? I'd love to "work" on the couch. Thanks!

Middle click in firefox with a thinkpad

Who_Am_I — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 10:11:45 -0800

How do I middle-click in Firefox on a Thinkpad T43? My Thinkpad has a Touchpad that looks like this. I would really like to use that middle button above the Touchpad to middle-click in Firefox for opening links in a new tab and closing tabs, but for some reason I can't seem to do that. I have been all through the UltraNav Touchpad software, and it seems to only want to use this button for scrolling. I know about CTRL-click and corner tapping, but I would like to figure out how to use this button instead. Any ideas?

Ubuntu Headache

aburd — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 15:35:15 -0800

So I installed Ubuntu on my HP Pavilion zv5000 AMD64 laptop and don't have a clue what I am doing. This may have been a horrible mistake, but I am semi-determined to make it work. My efforts to be functional are being completely hampered by a problem with my touchpad. I asked this question on the ubuntuforums beginner's section without much help. I was originally having problems with the "tap to click" feature for touchpads. It was much too sensitive. So I installed a new driver that was supposed to help by doing this. Now every time I drag my finger across my touchpad I end up moving about 1 inch on the screen.

I have also downloaded this driver but haven't a clue how to install it using the "Synaptic Package Manager" or if I should even try to.
Can anyone help me get the touchpad to work so I can get to working on my wireless card!! Thank you to anyone who replies!

touchpad peripheral opinions re: carpal tunnel?

radiosilents — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 21:28:20 -0800

reviews/opinions about touchpad peripherals? carpal tunnel is kicking my god damned ass right now, and i feel like this might really reduce the stress/pain.

Power Move: The Two Finger Scroll

jedrek — Sun, 16 Apr 2006 12:51:54 -0800

Looking for a driver to use two finger scrolling under Windows XP on the MacBook Pro. I've found a lot of utilities over the past few days to get my MacBook really useable as a Windows laptop (my prefered platform for work). So far I've downloaded a great Apple Mouse utility, so ctrl-click works like the RMB and KeyTweak to switch the alt and apple/windows key and get a delete key working. I'm also testing out some keyboard macro programs to get fn-up and fn-down working as page up/page down.

The only thing I can't find is a driver/utility that will get me two-finger touchpad scrolling working. I used iScroll on my powerbook and missed the functionality on my previous PC laptop, now that I'm PC laptop-less, I'd love to have it even more. I've seen some patches for Linux, but am at a loss as far as a windows solution goes. I'd love to hear about any possible solutions, along with any kind of tips/tricks to get more out of XP on the MacBook.

How can I shut off the auto-click feature of the touchpad on my Sony Vaio?

DyRE — Sun, 26 Mar 2006 18:39:01 -0800

How can I shut off the auto-click feature of the touchpad on my Sony Vaio (model PCG-GRT170, if that helps)? I'm assuming this is called auto-click. It's not tapping (which is where tapping on the touchpad acts the same as clicking the left button). I can turn tapping off and it still does this. It's a function where if I move the cursor somewhere, the computer reacts as though I've also clicked there, even though I haven't. I can't seem to find a way to disable this in the mouse options. Google turns up some people with similar problems but no real solutions.

Help me find a PDA screen protector, please!

majick — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 13:35:53 -0800

I need help locating a source for lightly textured (as opposed to glossy) PDA screen protectors or a similar material in bulk, but it seems like everything out there is glossy and clear! I don't use them on a PDA, but as replaceable surfaces on my laptop's touchpad so I'm open to trying something other than a screen protector. Any ideas? You know how laptop touchpads get kind of smooth and worn after a while? I hate that. I really, really, really hate that. So instead I've been steadily going through my supply of old Concept Kitchen WriteRights, which I cut out and place on the touchpad of my laptop to absorb finger wear. Concept Kitchen has since sold out to a company called Fellowes that continues to make a product called WriteRight, but it's glossy and clear and not at all the same thing. If I wanted a glossy touchpad surface, I'd just let the thing wear down!

I have no idea where I could source the raw materials for one of these things. Any sheet of slightly textured, thin vinyl with a mild adhesive would do the job, but those old WriteRights were perfect. I only have a couple of these things left, and they're only good for a few months at a time with heavy usage. What should I be using now?

No scrolly makes beth mad!

beth — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 15:05:22 -0800

Help me leave Internet Explorer behind. I want to use Opera or Firefox, but my touchpad scrolling function doesn't work in either of them. Am I doomed to stick with IE if I want to be able to scroll easily? Please tell me "no". I have turned up many reports of this problem on Google, but little in the way of solutions. One solution I did try involved editing an .ini file for my touchpad, and doing so not only didn't fix the problem, but it broke my scrolling ability in IE, too! Thankfully I got it back when I reversed my changes.

Fwiw, I have a Compaq notebook with a Synaptics touchpad, and it's only a few months old.

Turning a touchpad into a pen-iput device

stratastar — Sat, 05 Mar 2005 14:29:38 -0800

I've been racking my brain (and the internet) trying to figure out how to turn the touchpad on my new laptop into a defacto pen input device. Any ideas? By now, it's more of a person project, but it would still be cool to be able to use it to jot notes and such...
The touchpad is on an IBM and is made by Synaptics. It is neither a touch/pressure/heat sensetive device. The only way I've been able to get it to respond to an input other than my finger is with a magnet, but it had to be laid flat on the surface. (It also seems to be only able to record one input at a time (so two fingers won't register) Thanks!

Intermittent laptop touchpad problem

ferociouskitty — Mon, 22 Dec 2003 14:59:42 -0800

Is there any way to make an intermittent problem with a laptop more regular? I have a year-old laptop that they talked me into getting an extended warranty for, and there is a problem with the touchpad I've tried to get them to fix twice, but it's never a problem when it's in for service. How can I give them something to fix?