How to Hide or Show Touchpad Button on Taskbar in Windows 10
Starting with Windows 10 build 14965, controlling external monitors from tablets just got easier. You can now drive content on a second display from your tablet without ever having to attach a mouse. The virtual touchpad lets you do more with a tablet and a second screen – just connect to another monitor, PC, or TV, go to Action Center and tap on the “Project” Quick Action to extend your screen. Use it just like you would a physical touchpad to control content on the connected screen. When you enable the “Show touchpad button”, a touchpad icon will appear in the notification area (just like Windows Ink Workspace does), and tapping on it will bring it up the virtual touchpad.
Starting with Windows 10 build 15019, the look of the Virtual Touchpad has been adjusted to make the left/right buttons more visible.
The touchpad button is only supported on any PC (ex: tablet or laptop) that has a touchscreen.
This tutorial will show you how to hide or show the touchpad button on the taskbar notification area for your account in Windows 10.
Contents
- Option One: To Hide or Show Touchpad Button in Taskbar Context Menu
- Option Two: To Hide or Show Touchpad Button in Settings
- Option Three: To Hide or Show Touchpad Button using a BAT file
EXAMPLE: Touchpad button on taskbar and virtual touchpad
This option is no longer available starting with Windows 10 build 21337 and higher.
1 Right click or press and hold on the taskbar, and click/tap on Show touchpad button to toggle it to show (checked) or hide (unchecked - default). (see screenshot below)
1 Turn on or off the Touchpad system icon for what you want. (see screenshot below)
For how, see: How to Turn Taskbar Notification Area System Icons On or Off in Windows 10
The downloadable .bat files below will modify the DWORD value in the registry key below.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Touchpad
TouchpadDesiredVisibility DWORD
0 = Off - hide
1 = On - show
1 Do step 2 (show) or step 3 (hide) below for what you would like to do.
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the BAT file below, and go to step 4 below.
Show_Touchpad_button_on_taskbar.bat
Download
This is the default setting.
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the BAT file below, and go to step 4 below.
Hide_Touchpad_button_on_taskbar.bat
Download
4 Save the .bat file to your desktop.
5 Unblock the .bat file.
6 Run the .bat file.
7 You will now notice your screen flicker and a command prompt quickly opens and closes as explorer is restarted to apply the registry changes.
8 When finished, you can delete the downloaded .bat file if you like.
That's it,
Shawn
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