Here are some notes I wrote recently on this topic for some colleagues:
Dell Latitude D400 and upwards - the Alps touchpad software allows the
pointing stick, touchpad and both sets of mouse buttons to be configured
so that the mouse can't be clicked by mistake.
Specifically how this is achieved depends on the version of the Alps
touchpad software in use. On my Latitude D400, I have Alps driver
version 5.4.101.16, date 15/11/2002. The Device Select page of the Mouse
Properties dialogue allows everything to be disabled:
On a Latitude D410 and above, the Alps driver may not be installed -
it's unclear whether it's included in the ghost image - and if it isn't,
the Mouse Properties dialogue will only have three or four pages, none
of which will be the Device Select.
If you go to the Dell website and download the latest Alps drivers (as
of 29th September 2006, that's version 5.4.104.4, dated 19/10/2005),
note that they do not allow both the pointing stick and the touchpad to
be disabled - if you disable either one, the other becomes unavailable.
One option is to revert to the older version of the software.
Alternatively, it is possible to set the buttons so that although the
pointer can be moved, it's difficult to click something inadvertently.
The way to do this is on the Buttons page, where you can set both Left
Button and Right Button to "None", and Both Buttons to "Click" - you
can't set them all to "None".
Note that an external mouse plugged into the laptop will function
normally regardless of the above settings.
-----Original Message-----
From: jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Robbie Curtis
Sent: 05 October 2006 04:53
To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: JAWS and Laptops
Hi Everyone:
I have a friend who has a Dell laptop and wishes to disconnect the mouse
pad feature. She uses JAWS 6. Does anyone know what to do to
disconnect this mouse pad feature? Thanks.
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