Top 7 Ways to Fix Touchpad Not Working Windows 11

Windows touchpad gestures bring a lot of convenience to the table. Whether it’s three-finger swipes to switch between active windows or revealing the desktop, the touchpad can be more useful than a mouse. But sometimes your laptop’s touchpad can act and stop responding. If you’ve experienced a similar problem yourself, this guide is for you.

Whether the touchpad is not responding to gestures or has become completely non-functional, this guide provides solutions to get the touchpad to work again. So let’s get started.

1. Restart your PC

You can start by restarting your PC. If the touchpad isn’t working due to any of the background processes or a minor software glitch, restarting your PC should take care of it.

To restart your PC, you can either use an external mouse or your keyboard. To restart your PC using a keyboard, press the Start button, use the arrow key to power on, and press Enter. Now select Restart from the menu and hit enter again.

2. Activate the touchpad

You can check if the touchpad is enabled and working properly on your PC. Many laptop models have a function key to disable the trackpad. So you need to check if you have disabled the touchpad by mistake. Locate and press the function key to verify this.

3. Check the antivirus program

Antivirus program could interfere and change trackpad settings. To make sure, disconnect the internet connection from your PC, then temporarily turn off the antivirus to check if it makes the touchpad work. Otherwise, restart your PC and activate the antivirus.

4. Run the hardware troubleshooter

Windows offers a range of troubleshooters that can diagnose problems on your PC and fix them on its own. Fortunately, it also offers one for hardware devices. Here’s how to get there.

Step 1: Open the start menu, type cmd, and use the arrow key to navigate to Run as administrator. Then hit enter.

2nd step: In the console, type the following command and press Enter.

msdt.exe -id DeviceDiagnostic

Step 3: In the Hardware and Peripherals window that appears, tap Next to allow it to check for any issues.

If the tool asks to perform an automatic repair after completing the scan, select Apply this fix to continue. Once done, restart your PC and see if you can access the touchpad now.

5. Repair the touchpad driver

If the troubleshooter doesn’t identify any issues with the touchpad, you can take matters into your own hands and repair the touchpad app through the Settings menu. Here’s how.

Step 1: Press Windows key + I to launch the Settings app. Switch to the Apps tab on your left and navigate to Apps & Features.

2nd step: Find your touchpad app and use the three-dot menu next to it to change it.

Step 3: Follow the onscreen instructions to complete the restore process.

6. Update or reinstall the driver

Windows Updates usually take care of updating your drivers every now and then. But if you have disabled automatic updates in Windows, eventually these drivers will become obsolete. In this case, you can try to update the drivers manually by following the steps below.

Step 1: Open the start menu, type Device Manager, and press Enter.

2nd step: Expand Mouse and other pointing devices, right click on your touchpad and select the Update driver option.

If the problem persists, the drivers may be corrupted. You can try uninstalling the drivers by following the above steps and restarting your PC to allow Windows to reinstall them.

7. Use system restore

Windows 11 offers a handy System Restore feature that periodically performs a backup of the entire system. Such backups can come in handy when you encounter problems that cannot be resolved by other means. Read on to learn how to use System Restore feature on Windows 11 to get back to the point where the touchpad was working fine.

Step 1: Open the start menu, type create a restore point, and press Enter.

2nd step: Under the System Protection tab, click the System Restore button.

Step 3: You can either use the recommended restore point or choose a different one yourself by choosing the second option.

Choose a restore point when the touchpad was working properly and tap Next. Now follow the onscreen instructions to perform a system restore.

Operate the touchpad

It’s hard to do much when your laptop’s touchpad stops working, especially if you’re unfamiliar with Windows shortcuts or don’t have a wireless mouse to spare. Hope the above solutions were enough to fix your Windows 11 touchpad issues for good.