Synaptics touchpad - scrolling issues after Win7 to Win10 upgrade

Bastet said:

It sounds like all the settings are there so you won’t require that driver. Do you still have the Synaptics tab under Mouse settings within device manager? If yes & you ever decide to clean install Windows then those settings & the tab will be removed. This is why I mentioned the precision touchpad driver.
Have you downloaded the Synaptics app from the MS store?

Short answer - the Synaptics tab is there under the mouse settings in Device Manager. Presumably because I did a Win7 to Win10 in-place upgrade so the apps and settings were all preserved.

I haven't downloaded the Synaptics app from the MS Store (yet!). In view of the explanation (hooray!) in the recent posts above that the cause of the problem is UWP, the interesting question is this: will the Synaptics app from the Store reinstate the scrolling functionality which at the moment has been lost. Is that Synaptics app compatible with UWP? If not, then Microsoft have surely messed up - again?

dalchina said:

Question: was your driver designed for Win 10?
No.
Do you think Win 10 should be designed for your driver?
You want the answer to be yes.

Trying to uses old kit and drivers with an O/S designed years later I've already said may lead to problems and is not guaranteed.

As you've chosen to upgrade to a non-guaranteed situation, the responsibility rests with you.
We can't adapt Win 10 to meet your situation.

I know you don't want to hear this, but you have to adapt.. try things. No guarantees.

I'm all in favour of progress, @dalchina - and your comments are fair and logical, in a sense. I don't shrink from taking responsibility for my choices. Nor do I expect Microsoft or Win10 to be designed to fit me!

But I believe in evolution as well as adapting. And I posted up about problems such as the non-scrolling touchpad because I thought, and it has now been proved, that I was far from alone. There are many other people - posting in this forum, and elsewhere - who have come up against the same problem. So looking for the cause, as well as possible solution, is a useful endeavour, not a selfish indulgence. Problems shared are often problems solved.

And even if there is no chance that Win10 will ever work well on my (old-ish) laptop, or my touchpad will scroll, we have at least - see @jbcarreon123 's post - pinpointed the cause of the scrolling problem. It is nothing to do with "my" drivers. The issue is the design-change of UWP, which Microsoft has evidently not made compatible with some other normal system functionalities. So be it. At least we now know the reason for the problem. Whether Microsoft does anything about it is their call, not mine.

But yes, the necessary response is to adapt. I'm already a long way down that adapting road. In my case, it is adapting away from Windows and towards Linux! Meanwhile, my continuing engagement and interest in Win10 is driven by curiosity and a desire to see problems solved - not only for my own benefit but because it might help others too....

Bastet said:

It’s worth trying. However I don’t use the app but use the precision touchpad driver & have no problems.

The worrying thing is that every single review of the Synaptics app in the Microsoft Store says it won't download, won't install or is useless. Not exactly an incentive to try it (especially if doing so overrides or removes the Synaptics drivers/settings/program I currently have showing up in Device Manager!). I'm thinking better the devil you know than the devil you don't.....

Well, there's more to report.... and possibly progress, although with a slight twist.

A conversation in another thread with @Try3 led me to a guide he had produced here about searching for drivers (in this case for a touchpad) using the Hardware ID.

So I found the ID for my touchpad and went looking. I couldn't find anything through a search on the Synaptics site. But the search led me to one or two download sites (filehippo was the one I went to) which apparently offered drivers for this touchpad. I downloaded v.19.2.17.59 - and installed it.

To my slight surprise, and great relief, the touchpad works with this more recent driver. The good news is - it now also scrolls properly in the Win10 Start Menu and in Settings pages, and in the MS Store - all the UWP-designed apps where scrolling didn't previously work.

The weird news is that in Device Manager the touchpad is now listed as a Dell touchpad. The driver still shows as manufactured by Synaptics. But the Synaptics tab for additional settings (with all the options listed in my earlier post #9) has gone.

I suppose if I had followed @Bastet 's advice to try the Precision touchpad driver, something similar would have happened?

Anyway - I suppose this is a step forward, in that the scrolling problem is resolved. No help from either the Samsung support or Synaptics websites, but ultimately this forum has both identified the cause of the problem (UWP apps - thanks @jbcarreon123 ) and suggested a solution (thanks @Try3 ) albeit carrying a Dell label.