Microsoft has introduced a bunch of new touchpad gesture with Windows 10. These new touchpad gestures allow you quickly switch between running apps, open task view, open Cortana, and perform many other jobs by simply moving two or more fingers on your laptop’s touchpad.

New touchpad gestures in Windows 10

In addition to the standard gestures like to tap to click, two finger tap to right-click, and pinch to zoom, the following new gestures are available in Windows 10.

Three finger tap – open Cortana

Three finger drags and slides – switch apps

Three finger up – open task view

Three finger down – show desktop

Four finger tap – open action center

Although these gestures help you quickly switch between apps and get your job done quickly, not all users like these gestures offered in Windows 10. Since all these actions can be performed using keyboard shortcuts as well, many users prefer using keyboard shortcuts over touchpad gestures.

If you’re not using one or more touchpad gestures and want to turn them off, you can do so by following given below instructions. One can also use these directions to turn on touchpad gestures in Windows 10.

NOTE: If you want to completely turn off the touchpad, please refer to our 3 ways to turn off the touchpad in Windows 10 guide.

Turn on or off touchpad gestures via Settings

This method is only for notebooks with precision touchpad. To check if your laptop’s touchpad is precision or not, please follow the directions in Step1 to 4.

Step 1: Open Settings app by clicking the Settings icon in the left-pane of Start menu. The Settings app can also be launched by using Windows logo + I keyboard shortcut.

Step 2: Click the second icon labelled Devices (Bluetooth, printers, mouse).

Step 3: Click Mouse and touchpad to view various settings for mouse and touchpad.

Step 4: Here, under Touchpad section, if your notebook is equipped with precision touchpad, you will see options to turn on or off the touchpad as well as touchpad gestures.

Note that you might get options to turn on or off touchpad gestures if your laptop is not equipped with precision touchpad. However, there is a workaround to enable precision touchpad on any laptop.

Turn on or off the touchpad gestures you want to enable or disable and then close Settings app. That’s it!

If your laptop is not equipped with precision touchpad, you will only see the option to change the touchpad delay before clicks work (to avoid accidentally moving mouse cursor while typing).

Turn on or off touchpad gestures via Control Panel

Most of the laptops, including those that don’t have precision touchpad, shipped post the release of Windows 8 (happened in October 2012) offer multi-touch gestures. If the touchpad driver has been updated to Windows 10, your non-precision touchpad also likely offers most of the gestures if not all.

Step 1: In the Start menu search box or Run command box, type Main.cpl and then press Enter key to open Mouse properties. This can also be launched by opening Control Panel, changing View by to Small icons, and then clicking Mouse.

Step 2: Once Mouse Properties is launched, click on the last tab named ClickPad, Thinkpad or Touchpad.

Step 3: Click Settings button to open Synaptics Control Panel.

Step 4: Switch to Click, Scroll, and Gestures tabs one after another to view all gestures supported by your touchpad.

Step 5: Check or uncheck gestures to turn them on or off. Once done, click OK button on, and then click Apply.

Do you prefer gestures or keyboard shortcuts?