Precision m4500: touchpad is making me crazy!

Is it possible to turn off the touchpad when a mouse is connected? I'm getting REALLY tired of typing everything twice!

Thanks for your help.

 

Did you try to enable the Disable Touchpad/Pointing Stick when external USB mouse is present control on the Dell Touchpad Utility? See the checkbox at the lower left corner of the image attached to this post.

And

The Pointer Options tab of the Mouse Properties dialog box should have a Hide pointer while typing checkbox control, which can be checked to enable this behavior.

 

I'm sorry, but I can't find the Dell Touchpad Utility. I'm new to Window 7, but I looked everywhere my XP brain can think of. That looks to be exactly what I was looking for though.

Can I have another tiny clue, please?

 

Try: Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Control Panel -> Mouse

This brings up the Mouse Properties dialog box.

Then, on the Dell Touchpad tab of the Mouse Properties dialog box, click on the touchpad graphic.

IIRC, you can also access this via Dell ControlPoint. I don't have ControlPoint installed and can't give you specifics.

 

Hmmm. The Mouse Properties dialog does not have a Dell Touchpad tab. No Dell ControlPoint, and the Hide pointer while typing control is checked.

Rats. I'm going to have to call our truly 'stellar', outsourced IT company, aren't I? That's guaranteed to make a good day go bad.

Other suggestions are welcomed as I'm unlikely to get a solution in-house. Thank you for your assistance on this. I do appreciate you taking the time.

 

Problem solved. The software had not been installed. It is now installed and the evasive setting has been found and set! Thank you, VeryOldGuy!!

 

By default the touchpad driver puts an icon near the right hand end of the taskbar ("notification area"). If it is not there then I wonder if the Dell touchpad driver is actually installed and you will do no harm by installing / reinstalling it using the latest version.

John