X1C6: Hotkey to enable/disable TouchPad with W10

[dandreye]

Hi All,

Is there a hotkey to enable/disable TouchPad on an X1C6 running W10? If not is there a way to program it somehow? Once in a while I have to enable it really quick, e.g. to draw something on a shared screen while in a con call to illustrate the point, while at all other times I need it disabled. Going to Touchpad in W10 Settings app to toggle it there is somewhat long. Looks like F6 is supposed to do exactly that in some X1s as shown here for X1C4:
https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/prod ... /vid100752

but when I click F6 in mine nothing at all happens, and Fn+F6 increases screen brightness. Am I likely missing some TouchPad driver?

Note: it's a precision TouchPad in my X1C6 in case it makes any difference.

Thanks in advance!

[Vopu]

You can check double tap disable zone settings under settings/touchpad/additional settings/ultranav/tap zone if you have , double tap on top left disables/enables your precision touchpad , there is also Win10 setting under touchpad that disables your touchpad when a mouse is connected called "leave touchpad ON", if you unplug your mouse temporarily it will enable touchpad than plug back you mouse when done.
One can also asign a shortcut to your ultranav control panel to swiftly disable it /C/prog.files/Synaptics/SynTP/Lenovo shortcut/properties/assign shortcut key.
There is also a freeware called "touchpad blocker" here where you can set it to run at windows startup to disable but assign a keyboard shortcut like Ctrl+XXX to quickly turn the blocker On or Off.
See if this helps , Vopu

[dandreye]

See if this helps , Vopu

Thank you - just tried and:

You can check double tap disable zone settings under settings/touchpad/additional settings/ultranav/tap zone if you have

I can't see UltraNav anywhere for some reason and also my Touchpad's upper left/right corners seem to be fixed: only the lower ones can be pressed.

there is also Win10 setting under touchpad that disables your touchpad when a mouse is connected called "leave touchpad ON", if you unplug your mouse temporarily it will enable touchpad than plug back you mouse when done.

I noticed it there but I still need mouse when drawing, e.g. to save/clear/etc.

One can also asign a shortcut to your ultranav control panel to swiftly disable it /C/prog.files/Synaptics/SynTP/Lenovo shortcut/properties/assign shortcut key.

Assuming that Lenovo shortcut is something I should create myself under C:/Program Files/Synaptics/SynTP/ (at least there's none there) what exactly do I point it at? When I right click there to create a shortcut it wants a target.

There is also a freeware called "touchpad blocker" here where you can set it to run at windows startup to disable but assign a keyboard shortcut like Ctrl+XXX to quickly turn the blocker On or Off.

My corporate antivirus blocks it thinking it's some trojan there, so looks like the "Lenovo shortcut" method right above is my only hope out of these alternatives )

Btw I also have a user defined F12 key that I haven't used yet, so perhaps that one could also be an option knowning what exactly app to point it at.

[Vopu]

I think some explanation on my end is needed, i don't work with an X1 but an old dual boot T440P but both use ultranav drivers, versions may be different but funtions should match as you also have a default/factory touchpad.Some settings i mentioned is unique/part of Win10 but not limited to ultranav, some settings/locations/features may change. You mentioned you don't see ultranav drivers nor ultranav control pannel so i am thinking you are running default Win10 drivers. If so , let's start with updating your touchpad drivers first, linked below.

I can't see UltraNav anywhere for some reason and also my Touchpad's upper left/right corners seem to be fixed: only the lower ones can be pressed.

this is not "clicking" on your touchpad, it's tapping , with a light touch, you can download /update your drivers from lenovo, if this is a 6th gen X1 see drivers here, that way you can have your Ultranav drivers/settings and play around those settings as mentioned.

I noticed it there but I still need mouse when drawing, e.g. to save/clear/etc.

, you said you keep your touchpad disabled at all times but only once in a while to enable it , when you unplug your mouse you can use your touchpad which on it's own has double/tripple click /gestures to use for copy/paste/and all others you can do with your external mouse.

Assuming that Lenovo shortcut is something I should create myself under C:/Program Files/Synaptics/SynTP/ (at least there's none there) what exactly do I point it at? When I right click there to create a shortcut it wants a target.

Lenovo shortcut is not something you create yourself,(may be listed under a different name in yours(if you have ultranav drivers) ) at least i have not, it is there when you install ultranav drivers and it's a shortcut to open ultranav control page same way when you click pc settings/(control pannel)mouse/additional settings, its just a shortcut to bypass going through settings than opening mouse additional settings, (not that you creating a shortcut and asking for a target. ) if you had that shortcut that opens your ultranav control pannel , you can assign a keyboard shortcut combination to ultranav control pannel , say shortcut to a shortcut if that makes sense

My corporate antivirus blocks it thinking it's some trojan there, so looks like the "Lenovo shortcut" method right above is my only hope out of these alternatives )

Well, i can't see an option other than downloading the sw first , scanning with perhaps multiple antivirus/malware sw to make sure it doesn't bring up any hidden surprises for you , once you are satisfied it's just a matter of creating an exception in your antivirus.
Also , i have seen this for standart Windows drivers if you don't mind a couple of clicks , Win+R/regedit
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\PrecisionTouchPad\Status
Enabled DWORD
0 = Disable (off)
1 = Enable (on)

Btw I also have a user defined F12 key that I haven't used yet, so perhaps that one could also be an option knowning what exactly app to point it at.
[/quote]

[dandreye]

Many thanks for your detailed comments.

you can download /update your drivers from lenovo, if this is a 6th gen X1 see drivers here, that way you can have your Ultranav drivers/settings and play around those settings as mentioned.

Just tried it and... still no signs of UltraNav anywhere, and still no Lenovo shortcut under C:/Program Files/Synaptics/SynTP/ either. In the Mouse Properties that tab is still called ThinkPad (I do have UltraNav tab exactly there on my old T42 and T43 running W7, so it's clearly different here). When I click on that tab I have 2 sections:
- TrackPoint with Enable Trackpoint grayed out and everything else adjustable (Slow - Fast scale and Middle Button Action)
- TouchPad with the following text: "Your computer has a Precision Touchpad. You can find most touchpad settings in Windows Settings" followed by the Windows Precision Touchpad Settings link. Further down it says "For additional advanced touchpad settings please click the button below"... and grayed out Advanced Settings button )

This looks like W10 touchpad driver to me too. I have the following under "Mice and other pointing devices" in my DM:
- Synaptics pointing device: Location = plugged into PS/2 mouse port, driver version 19.3.4.226 dated 12/06/2020 (Synaptics)
- another HID compliant mouse (I only had one there before driver install attempt - my Bluetooth mouse): Location = on Synaptics HID-Compliant Touch pad Device, driver version 10.0.18362.1 dated 21/06/2006 (Microsoft)
Looks like my main issue now is getting UltraNav driver installed if possible at all. Wondering if I should try updating my Trackpoint/Touchpad FW from the packages adjacent to the Synaptics UltraNav driver at the link you shared.

Also , i have seen this for standart Windows drivers if you don't mind a couple of clicks , Win+R/regedit

I certainly don't as long as nothing needs restarting afterwards: I'll then try creating two .reg files for enable/disable resp. and place them somewhere at hand.

[Vopu]

Hi, i think you have the Win10 touchpad drivers hence some sections of thinkpad is grayed out like advanced settings. There sure is a way to install ultranav drivers without being over-written by Win10 if you are comfortable with your regedit.
I have tried it on my T61 "hopeless" touchpad upgrade, if you search the forum i think realblackstuff and all others contributed to several posts about keeping your drivers managed by yourself not by microsoft. Basically you disable driver updates as part of windows updates from your registry first , put your laptop on driver signature/test mode either by safe mode or by registry, install drivers from lenovo than exclude your touchpad I.D from driver installations so that windows does not try to update specific drivers anymore. From memory i can't remember the full sequence but there is a sticky somewhere here & i am sure someone will point you to the right topic where stupidity of Win10 enforcing drivers automatically is thoroughly discussed I can see this to start with.
And for the other regisrty trick to create enable/disable touchpad with handy reg. shortcuts on your desktop, the answer is no, you do not/should not necessarily need a restart after some changes to your registry.
Like you can scan for HW changes within device manager for any changes without restart , bringing up your task manager and ending exporer.exe (after saving everything you were working on just in case) and restarting again updates any registry change you have made so far , meaning you can continue to work. However, there is a risk of loosing/crashing something in doing so and also this adds some more clicks you are trying to avoid in the first place.
After all possible options/workarounds adviced, i think your problem lies solely with Lenovo drivers or lack of to be precise, and all we are trying to do is jumping through loops / trying work arounds for the essential problem in hand. Try to sort out your ultranav first (perhaps with thinkvantage) than we shall take it up from there.
Vopu

[dandreye]

Hi, i think you have the Win10 touchpad drivers hence some sections of thinkpad is grayed out like advanced settings. There sure is a way to install ultranav drivers without being over-written by Win10 if you are comfortable with your regedit.

I've just tried following this one referred to from the thread you've shared:
https://www.howtogeek.com/263851/how-to ... c-drivers/

Clicking "Apply to already installed devices" before Apply button resulted in the instant loss of TrackPoint/TouchPad and even the KB itself ) fortunately my BT mouse kept working fine. I tried installing the same Synaptics UltraNav W10 driver from n23gz18w.exe and it won't install anymore saying something like "not allowed by the policy". Then I disabled those device installation policies in gpedit.msc and this way it did install but still no change anywhere and no UltraNav either. In fact my driver provider for "Synaptics Pointing Devices" is (still) Synaptics and not Microsoft, so perhaps the right driver was actually installed since inception? The driver provider for the HID compliant mouse on Synaptics HID-Compliant Touch pad Device is Microsoft (again same as before), not sure if it's this one that is supposed to change or the "main" Synaptics one though.

Here are the HW IDs:
- Synaptics Pointing Device:

Code: Select all

ACPI\VEN_LEN&DEV_0091
ACPI\LEN0091

- HID-compliant mouse on Synaptics HID-Compliant Touch pad Device:

Code: Select all

HID\VID_06CB&PID_000F&Col01
HID\VID_06CB&UP:0001_U:0002
HID_DEVICE_SYSTEM_MOUSE
HID_DEVICE_UP:0001_U:0002
HID_DEVICE

Except for the last 3 (which were exact same as in my BT mouse, which I didn't want to hurt) I put them all into device installation policy to prevent their driver autoinstall during this exercise.

Update: just got the Registry patches working perfectly fine here, so I'll use it as a workaround for now:

Code: Select all

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\PrecisionTouchPad\Status]
"Enabled"=dword:00000001

Meanwhile could anyone using X1C6 please say if you have UltraNav and if so how you managed to install it?..... Thread title has been amended accordingly making it X1C6 specific.

[Vopu]

Hi , we really need some input from another forum member with an X1 6th gen to compare & assist i guess, in the mean time some basic troubleshooting
-What was the Factory O.S your X1 came with? what version and release of Win10 are you running ?
-Are all your Windows updates up to date?
-Any other hw problems listed in device manager ?
-Have you tried completely uninstalling the Hid complient touchpad and everything else related to synaptics from device manager and restarting for Win. to re-install back?
or uninstall and follow browse my comp/ let me pick from available in computer route for the installation , What drivers are listed under When you pick froma list of available drivers? are they digitally signed ?
-Have you used the .exe to install manually (extract to C/Drivers/Win/ultranav )? Or you use Lenovo sw like think vantage for your driver updates?
-You said driver provider is microsoft , i believe this should be synaptics (when a synaptics driver is installed) and listed as Synaptics pointing device not HID complient touchpad
-I also see a firmware for synaptics , have you installed it ? (Synaptics Touchpad FirmwarePR2698617 / PR281276104 Dec 2018) here
-Are there any hw changes on this unit ?, like upgraded touchpad/keyboard/MB ?
-Have tried any other 3rd party sw driver updater? or Scan your system from Lenovo site for automatic driver updates?
Vopu

[dandreye]

-What was the Factory O.S your X1 came with? what version and release of Win10 are you running ?

This is my work laptop that came to me with some kind of our corporate W10x64 Enterprise flavour preinstalled, which finished installing once I powered it on 1st time. Since then it's been autoupdating whenever it pleases, which I suppose depends more on when our IT want it rather than Microsoft although I may be wrong about it. At present it's running W10.0.18363.1256 after a pretty major upgrade several weeks ago.

-Are all your Windows updates up to date?

Well at least there are none pending at the moment.

-Any other hw problems listed in device manager ?

None at all, not a single device there with any kind of alarm. IIRC it's been like that either since inception or perhaps after some light troubleshooting ~1.5yrs ago when I just got it.

-Have you tried completely uninstalling the Hid complient touchpad and everything else related to synaptics from device manager and restarting for Win. to re-install back?

Not manually yet although it seems to have happened when I clicked Apply with "Apply to installed" checked in gpedit.msc as I mentioned above. Right after that my HID compliant mouse that used to reside on Synaptics was gone and Synaptics itself had an alarm (no driver or something), at which point neither TrackPoint nor TouchPad nor KB were functional as if they all lost their respective drivers. I then tried installing n23gz18w.exe in different ways: fully auto, semi auto (i.e. unpack into C:\DRIVERS and then run Setup.exe manually), manual (pointing at the inf), and in the latter case noticed that it was digitally signed in one of those screens - but all those attempts were blocked by the policy. Once I lifted the latter I can't remember which of those 3 I ran - and the same drivers got installed right away.

-Have you used the .exe to install manually (extract to C/Drivers/Win/ultranav )? Or you use Lenovo sw like think vantage for your driver updates?

Manually yes as mentioned right above; I have Lenovo System Update installed though, which IIRC would never find any updates needed (at least before the major W10 upgrade).

-You said driver provider is microsoft , i believe this should be synaptics (when a synaptics driver is installed) and listed as Synaptics pointing device not HID complient touchpad

For the HID compatible mouse it's Microsoft indeed while for the Synaptics device itself it's Synaptics (both before all this exercise and now).

-I also see a firmware for synaptics , have you installed it ? (Synaptics Touchpad FirmwarePR2698617 / PR281276104 Dec 2018) here

Haven't tried it yet after seeing some users lose TouchPad functionality upon upgrading the FW of theirs but haven't had a chance to read in detail to decide whether it looks safe for me to try or not.

-Have tried any other 3rd party sw driver updater? or Scan your system from Lenovo site for automatic driver updates?

3rd party not yet. Just tried Scan your system and it's found lots of driver updates (none for the trackpoint/touchpad though) and so has Lenovo System Update, so I'm updating it all right now just in case.

[Vopu]

Ok , let's see what it comes up with , i wonder though where the rest of the guys are , we need another input and another way of approach in this , me thinks I am slightly running out of ideas and i feel there is a specific step/knowledge we may be missing/unaware. It would help a lot if another X1 user can chip in .
For now i am on the sidelines, thinking,thinking,thin...

[dandreye]

Thanks for all your help so far btw, at least we've checked pretty much all basic stuff and it seems fine.

All driver updates are over by now. I ran Lenovo System Update and Scan (which seems to rely on the System Update anyway) a few times just to be sure no more left. Still no luck with UltraNav. Just wondering if I have some cheapo version of that Synaptics device w/o UltraNav: I know for sure it's not a fully featured system, e.g. no touch screen. Or perhaps UltraNav is not to be found at all on any of these X1s...

[Vopu]

Well , strange to admit but reading back some steps we had done so far , got me thinking perhaps we may unintentionally over complicated things a bit , thinking all you wanted was the shortcut to access settings quickly to be able to toggle a setting.
So here comes another approach
Right click on your desktop /select create shortcut/where it asks to point to / paste this
C:\Windows\explorer.exe ms-settings:devices-touchpad name your shortcut as touchpad settings at the next stage where it asks for a name.
To do the same for mouse(trackpoint) type this C:\Windows\explorer.exe ms-settings:mousetouchpad
I have created both and tested , working fine on my T440P with ultranav drivers, as it only opens the shortcut up until default Windows settings, i could not for the life of me figure out a way to add and open "related settings" or "additional settings" of the touchpad. I suspect problem lies with the command explorer takes you to settings allright but then when you click on additional settings your Ultranav driver takes over and opens its own control pannel (of which you lack due to driver error) ,
anyways , try this and hit back .
Mind you , i have created a shortcut same way and pointed to the "Lenovo Shortcut " i mentioned under C:/Program Files/Synaptics/SynTP/ , it is also working, opening directly Ultranav control pannel
Edit 1: You can also add a shortcut key/combination to this one you have just created making it a bit more easier. rightclick on the desktop shortcut/properties/assign shortcut key(s)
Vopu

[dandreye]

Right click on your desktop /select create shortcut/where it asks to point to / paste this
C:\Windows\explorer.exe ms-settings:devices-touchpad name your shortcut as touchpad settings at the next stage where it asks for a name.

That works perfectly fine here too (besides those direct registry edits): thank you ) I tried taking it 1 step further and making it start upon F12 but it starts explorer.exe w/o any parameters, probably 'cos I used "Add File" in User-Defined Key (interestingly the full launch string incl those parameters is still there, so not quite clear why they're not passed to the app). The other choice ("Add Application") seems to require the app to be registered and I recall registering some other app in the past, so will try registering this one too tomorrow.

Btw in the Mouse Properties now (a) Enable TrackPoint along with its checkbox checked is no longer grayed out in the TrackPoint section and (b) Additional Settings button in the TouchPad sections is no longer grayed out too. Clicking the latter one opens Synaptics Control Panel with 2 tabs: General and Advanced with a few adjustable items. I don't recall seeing any of that before.

[Vopu]

Btw in the Mouse Properties now (a) Enable TrackPoint along with its checkbox checked is no longer grayed out in the TrackPoint section and (b) Additional Settings button in the TouchPad sections is no longer grayed out too. Clicking the latter one opens Synaptics Control Panel with 2 tabs: General and Advanced with a few adjustable items. I don't recall seeing any of that before.

Good one, This now tells me you have updated your driver successfully , perhaps with the driver scan from Lenovo. You can check your advanced settings , poke around to see if there is something else usable. Remember the mode to keep your drivers away from being updated , kepp that in mind and make the changes before they are over-written again. Was a good run trying these and am glad i could help a bit. Gave me something to focus & not to be bothered about those news now, what will we do without sprouts this christmas with lorries queing ,
Wellcome to the Win10 haters club,
Vopu

[dandreye]

Just got shortcut key working with my TouchPad shortcut after placing under Start menu - Programs. Apparently there's a limitation as to where those shortcuts may reside:
https://superuser.com/questions/1046261 ... on-desktop

So it starts upon Ctrl+Alt+T and makes me happy now ) On a side note: I've just learned I can use my TouchPad as a drawing board instead of all those Wacom ones and the like, which I was thinking of buying before this discovery. Out of the objects at hand that I tried so far nothing else but a grape works (well and my own finger too) but they say a cheap stylus will do just fine, so awaiting a bunch of those to arrive.

As for the UltraNav, no need to chase it any further indeed. Perhaps one of those (if any) whose X1C6s have it will respond one day.

On W10 hating: well I joined that club as soon as I first saw it autoupdate itself and reboot w/o any consent from me whatsoever, right when I was in the middle of some work I'd hate being interrupted in such way... Literally a few days ago discovered there's no Uninstall for Microsoft Edge although it might be another "enhancement" from our IT guys: that's yet to be researched.

[Vopu]

A link for future referance , to get things done quicker for say. Explorer.exe for Ms. settings and run commands can be seen here
Vopu