Top 9 Ways to Fix Touchpad Gestures Not Working in Windows 10

Windows 10 supports various touchpad gestures. Besides the typical slide to scroll and pinch to zoom, you can use gestures like two-finger scrolling, sliding three fingers to view open windows, and sliding three fingers towards you, the desktop is displayed. Unfortunately, some Windows 10 users cannot take advantage of these gestures because they do not work on their PC. If you are having the same issue that touchpad gestures not working, here are some working solutions to fix the problem.

Solutions range from simply changing the mouse pointer to updating drivers. Try all the solutions on your HP, Lenovo, Samsung, Acer, Dell, etc. laptops and see which one works for you. After completing each solution, restart your computer. While you are trying the following solutions, try to keep a wireless mouse handy.

Let’s move on to the solutions right away.

1. Restart the PC

If the touchpad gestures suddenly don’t work, the first thing to do is restart your computer. Sometimes a simple solution like this works wonders.

2. Clean the touchpad

Next, clean your laptop’s touchpad. Sometimes due to greasy fingers and sweat, dirt starts to collect on the touchpad. Wiping the touchpad with a clean cloth will help you take control of your touchpad gestures.

3. Activate the touchpad

Some Windows computers allow you to disable the touchpad. You may have accidentally disabled the touchpad, and that’s why it may not work.

To enable the touchpad, go to Settings on your computer, then to Devices.

Click Touchpad in the left sidebar. You will see the toggle under Touchpad. Turn this on. If it is already on, turn it off and then on again. Restart the computer. Scroll down the same page and you will find many gestures. Activate them as needed.

Point: Enable the “Leave touchpad on when mouse is connected” setting.

4. Change the mouse pointer

Many Windows 10 users have suggested that changing the mouse pointer fixes the touchpad gestures issue for them. For that, proceed as following:

Step 1: Open the Control Panel on your computer.

2nd step: With View by mode selected as Small icons, click Mouse.

Step 3: Go to the Pointers tab. Under Schema, choose a different schema than the current one or select None. Press the Apply button and restart the PC.

5. Enable gestures in the touchpad settings

On some computers, you must enable the touchpad gestures that you want to use manually. To do this, follow the first two steps of the above solution i.e. go to Control Panel> Mouse. Then click on the rightmost parameter present next to Hardware. It has different names on different computers such as device settings, touchpad, synaptics, etc.

Note: If you don’t see the touchpad setup tab, know how to fix it.

Click on the settings for your touchpad device.

You will see different gestures. Check the box next to them to activate them. Also click on the settings gear icon next to each gesture to view more options.

Pro tip: Click Defaults at the bottom to reset gestures to their default values.

6. Check the antivirus

Sometimes even your antivirus program interferes with touchpad gestures. If your antivirus recently received an update, this could be the reason for your problem. Disable or uninstall the antivirus for a temporary period to see if it fixes the gesture issue.

7. Update touchpad gestures

Many times the touchpad gestures don’t work due to outdated or corrupted drivers. To resolve this issue, you need to update the drivers for your touchpad.

Here are the steps:

Step 1: Right click on the start menu icon and select Device Manager from the list.

2nd step: Expand Mice and other pointing devices. Right click on your touchpad driver and select Update Driver from the menu. Follow the onscreen instructions to update the driver online. Restart the PC after updating the driver. Check out our guide on how to update drivers correctly on Windows 10.

Point: You will find your touchpad driver by name. However, if you see two HID-enabled mice, try them both. One of them will be for the touchpad.

8. Restoring or uninstalling the drivers

Sometimes instead of updating the driver, rolling it back fixes the problem. So try that too. Go to Device Manager. Right click on your touchpad driver and select Properties.

Go to the Driver tab and click on Roll Back Driver (if active). Restart the computer and see if the problem is resolved. If the gestures work, update the driver as shown above. If the update brings the problem back, cancel it and leave it without an update until the manufacturer sends an update to fix it.

Another driver-related solution that you should try is to uninstall the touchpad drivers. Right click on the touchpad driver in Device Manager and select Uninstall Driver. Restart the PC.

9. Repairing the touchpad

Remember the good old Add or Remove Programs option? The same can be used to repair your touchpad. To do this, open Windows search and type Programs and Features. Click on it. Learn more about how to open the classic Add or Remove Programs panel.

Find the driver for your touchpad. Right click on it and select Repair.

Get it fixed

Hopefully, one of the above solutions should have fixed the touchpad gestures issue in Windows 10. If the issue persists, check your computer manufacturer’s site for more troubleshooting tips. You can check HP, Dell, and Lenovo websites.