Disable Touchpad Gestures.

Windows 8 is full of gestures and shortcuts. In addition to touch-screen gestures, there are swipe gestures you can perform with your laptop’s touchpad and mouse gestures that involve moving your cursor to the corners of the screen. However, there are ways to disable Windows 8 gestures. This is particularly useful if these gestures get in your way while using your touchpad or mouse.

Disabling the gestures can be useful if you accidentally trigger them while using your touchpad or if the app switcher and charms bar keep appearing as you move your mouse around the desktop. You can disable a Windows 8 device’s touch screen entirely, too — we don’t recommend it, but it’s something you can do if you want.

Disable Touchpad Gestures

Windows 8′s touchpad swipe gestures are particularly useful on laptops. They mimic touch-screen gestures, giving you easier access to Windows 8′s essential features. For example, swipe in from the right on a touchpad and you’ll see the charms, just as if you had swiped in from the right on a touchscreen.

Unfortunately, while these gestures can make it easier to get around in Windows 8, they can also just get in the way. If you find yourself accidentally triggering these gestures when you’re only trying to move your mouse cursor around, you can disable them.

Open the Control Panel, click the Hardware and Sound category, and select Mouse under Devices and Printers. Click over to the Device Settings tab (you should see this if you have a Synaptics touchpad driver installed), click the Settings button, and uncheck the Enable Edge Swipes option. Click OK to save your settings.