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Most touchpad settings suddenly missing/moved

Anonymous
2020-01-12T21:11:09+00:00

I'm experiencing a weird issue with the touchpad settings in Windows 10. My computer is an HP Spectre X360 laptop, 2017 model I believe, and the touchpad is a Synaptics HID TouchPad. Last night, I tried to turn my touchpad off (didn't need it, since I have a Bluetooth mouse), and neither the normal on/off switch nor the "enable touchpad while a mouse is connected" checkbox worked - the touchpad refused to turn off. I ignored it for a little while, then shut down my computer for the night. This morning, I turned my computer back on to discover that the vast majority of the touchpad settings in the normal Windows settings menu are completely missing, leaving only a dropdown box for changing the touchpad sensitivity.

Having been unable to find any solutions on Google, I asked a Microsoft agent for help; they directed me to try and download/install the latest version of the appropriate touchpad driver for my machine from the HP website. Turns out the driver I was using was the latest version (Synaptics TouchPad Driver (Windows 10 v1809/v1903)) - the reinstall did nothing, even after another reboot. I also asked my mom, since she works in IT; she informed me that the Mouse Properties dialog box will have touchpad driver settings on some computers, but it doesn't on mine. I searched Synaptics in the Windows Search box at the bottom left, following advice from another Google search for what to do, and the first hit was a dialog box called Synaptics Pointing Device, which seems to have all of the missing settings, albeit in a very different interface. I'm not sure if that existed before last night or not, since I never had a reason to go looking for it.

So the touchpad settings seem to have suddenly migrated, without my doing anything or asking them to. I'm still somewhat annoyed, since I just had to waste two hours of an otherwise busy day on this and the Synaptics Pointing Device dialog won't let me pin it to the Start menu, which was where I had the touchpad settings menu pinned for easy access (I like to be able to switch back and forth quickly between mouse/disabled touchpad for gaming and no mouse/enabled touchpad for bringing my laptop to class). I can pin this dialog to the taskbar for an effective workaround, but it's easier to misclick things on the taskbar so I prefer to keep as few things there as possible.

Any idea how this could have happened, and/or how to put the touchpad settings back where they belong?

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Devices and drivers

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-02-06T03:19:02+00:00

    This is a useless answer:

    First: we have no way of determining what touch pad we have because all the settings are gone.  Second: The device does not appear in Devices, there is no "touch-pad" listed as a device either under devices or human interfaces.  So there is not way to determine what the device is let alone have any settings.  If you go the the Synaptics  website thinking you may be able to download drivers there - forgetaboutit.  There are NONE. 

    Third:  I have a dell and if you go to the dell website - they don't have drivers available.  So ****.  

    Fourth: And when is Microsoft going to pay me for the 50 or so hours I have had to "donate" to finding solutions to all the problems each and every update causes???

    This is not an inconvenience - this has made my laptop keyboard useless for doing anything fast.  Time is money and I'm going to start billing

    I NEED A REAL ANSWER NOW.

    100+ people found this answer helpful.
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  2. Anonymous
    2020-01-12T21:17:17+00:00

    That's just the problem: there isn't a separate Touchpad tab under Mouse Properties (the dialog that came up from the "Additional mouse options" link, which I have been in and out of throughout this whole process), or at least there isn't on my machine.

    100+ people found this answer helpful.
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  3. Anonymous
    2020-01-29T00:08:06+00:00

    I don't have the touchpad setting at all after win10 update.

    WHAT SHOULD I DO?

    100+ people found this answer helpful.
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  4. Anonymous
    2020-02-06T03:07:14+00:00

    stupid answer.  He already told you he does not have the settings you suggest.

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  5. Anonymous
    2020-02-06T03:08:25+00:00

    all you get is sensitivity - all the rest of the controls are gone - as he said in his original  question

    60+ people found this answer helpful.
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