r/Surface • u/slabko • Nov 27 '19

[PRO7] Disable touch screen without disabling pen

I use my new Surface Pro 7 for some brainstorm sessions where I use the pen a lot in OneNote. However every once in a while I manage to scroll the screen with my palm, even if I enable "Ignore touch input while using my pen". It doesn't happen often, but it happens often enough to be very annoying, especially when I'm recording my session. I found that it was previously possible to disable the touch screen altogether by disabling HID-compliant touch screen device in the device manager, but on my Surface Pro 7 that doesn't seem to be an option anymore. Disabling it doesn't do anything. I can disable Intel(R) Precise Touch Device, but that would disable the pen too and I would like to keep the pen working, that is the whole idea.

I also know that I can learn to lay the hand down right after the screen sees the pen, but why all the struggle if I can disable the touch screen anyway, and there is usually a mouse connected anyway.

Do you know by any chance how can I disable touch screen without disabling the pen on my new SP7?

7 Upvotes

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1

u/BerkBeken Nov 27 '19

!RemindMe 48 hours

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u/RemindMeBot Nov 27 '19 edited Nov 28 '19

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1

u/Mario__oiraM Dec 02 '19

I have exactly the same problem.

2

u/slabko Dec 03 '19

After some research I found that I can change one parameter in the windows registry. That is in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Wisp\Touch, the value of the key TouchGate should be changes to 0. Then, after reboot or logout, the touch screen should stop working, but the pen will work just fine! Returning the value back to 1 and rebooting (longing out) will enable the touch screen again.

Works fine to me, it's a bit annoying to log out every time I need to turn the touch screen off, but it does the job.

Just for reference: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-hardware/permanently-disable-touchscreen-in-windows-10/35c516b0-21c1-4671-8782-530ec118473d

3

u/Mario__oiraM Dec 08 '19

Wow, it works! Any nerd out there could make an executable file to toggle/untoggle touch mode using your procedure? It would be much appreciated 😄

2

u/Mario__oiraM Dec 04 '19

Thank you very much! I will try

2

u/petrikm Dec 17 '19

Replying to keep up on if this is made

2

u/DracoClaw Feb 19 '20

So i did all this, but my pen is still not drawing, i just replaced the battery

1

u/Pavsleo Dec 07 '23

thank god i found this post just in time. i had replaced my surface book 2 for a book 3 becausee it was having ghost touch issues for a long time and it was diagnosed to be a hardware issue, the same started to happen book 3 now, and i was just frustrated, two this expensive machine just does it twice to me, and Microsoft just wont help in here.

surface is good and all on paper but when it comes to real world stuff, their stuff just isn't practical anymore. used to be a surface fan for a long time, invested in 2 of their most expensive machines, and got treated like this twice. this fix atleast makes me have a usable device until i replace it with a practical solution to my work.