Devices Enable or Disable Touch Screen in Windows 11

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This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable the touch screen for your account or all users in Windows 11.

A touch screen, or touchscreen, is an input device that enables you to interact directly with what is displayed, rather than using a mouse, touchpad, or other such devices (other than a stylus, which is optional for most modern touch screens).

If your device (ex: laptop or tablet) has a touch screen, you may want to disable and enable it as needed.



Contents

  • Option One: Enable or Disable Touch Screen for All Users in Device Manager
  • Option Two: Enable or Disable Touch Screen for All Users in PowerShell
  • Option Three: Enable or Disable Touch Screen for All Users using REG File
  • Option Four: Enable or Disable Touch Screen for Current User using REG File




Option One

Enable or Disable Touch Screen for All Users in Device Manager


You must be signed in as an administrator to use this option.


1 Open Device Manager (devmgmt.msc).

2 Do step 3 (enable) or step 4 (disable) below for what you want.

3 To Enable Touchscreen

This is the default setting.


A) Click/tap on the arrow next to Human Interface Devices to expand it open. (see screenshot below)​

B) Right click on HID-compliant touch screen, and click/tap on Enable device.​

C) You can now close Device Manager if you like.​

Enable_touchscreen_Device_Manager.png

4 To Disable Touchscreen

A) Click/tap on the arrow next to Human Interface Devices to expand it open. (see screenshot below)​

B) Right click on HID-compliant touch screen, and click/tap on Disable device.​

Disable_touchscreen_Device_Manager-1.png

C) Click/tap on Yes to confirm. (see screenshot below)​

Disable_touchscreen_Device_Manager-2.png

D) You can now close Device Manager if you like.​




Option Two

Enable or Disable Touch Screen for All Users in PowerShell


You must be signed in as an administrator to use this option.


1 Open Windows Terminal (Admin), and select Windows PowerShell.

2 Copy and paste the command below you want to use into PowerShell, and press Enter. (see screenshots below)

(Enable touchscreen - default)​
Get-PnpDevice | Where-Object {$_.FriendlyName -like '*touch screen*'} | Enable-PnpDevice -Confirm:$false

OR​

(Disable touchscreen)​
Get-PnpDevice | Where-Object {$_.FriendlyName -like '*touch screen*'} | Disable-PnpDevice -Confirm:$false


3 When finished, you can close Windows Terminal (Admin) if you like.

Enable_touchscreen_PowerShell.png


Disable_touchscreen_PowerShell.png





Option Three

Enable or Disable Touch Screen for All Users using REG File


You must be signed in as an administrator to use this option.


1 Do step 2 (enable) or step 3 (disable) below for what you want.


 2. Enable Touch Screen for All Users

This is the default setting.


A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.​

Enable_touchscreen_for_all_users.reg


(Contents of REG file for reference)
Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Wisp\Touch]
"TouchGate"=dword:00000001


 3. Disable Touch Screen for All Users

A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.​

Disable_touchscreen_for_all_users.reg


(Contents of REG file for reference)
Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Wisp\Touch]
"TouchGate"=dword:00000000

4 Save the REG file to your desktop.

5 If you have Smart App Control turned on, you will need to unblock the downloaded REG file.

6 Double click/tap on the downloaded REG file to merge it.

7 When prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.

8 Sign out and sign in or restart the computer to apply.

9 You can now delete the downloaded REG file if you like.




Option Four

Enable or Disable Touch Screen for Current User using REG File


1 Do step 2 (enable) or step 3 (disable) below for what you want.


 2. Enable Touch Screen for Current User

This is the default setting.


A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.​

Enable_touchscreen_for_current_user.reg


(Contents of REG file for reference)
Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Wisp\Touch]
"TouchGate"=dword:00000001


 3. Disable Touch Screen for Current User

A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.​

Disable_touchscreen_for_current_user.reg


(Contents of REG file for reference)
Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Wisp\Touch]
"TouchGate"=dword:00000000

4 Save the REG file to your desktop.

5 If you have Smart App Control turned on, you will need to unblock the downloaded REG file.

6 Double click/tap on the downloaded REG file to merge it.

7 When prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.

8 Sign out and sign in or restart the computer to apply.

9 You can now delete the downloaded REG file if you like.


That's it,
Shawn Brink


 

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Last edited:
It is really odd microsoft doesn't have a simple checkbox under display settings for this.

I had to deal with this today on a laptop touchscreen that was behaving badly and wasn't used, and found it so weird that I needed to do this in order to disable it.

I looked it up to make sure I was not crazy and missing it, but yeah apparently they just don't have a simple setting toggle for this.
 

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