The touchscreen is an input mechanism that enables you to interact with your device (on-screen displayed applications etc.), rather than using a mouse, and keyboard (touchpad), etc. If your device has a touch screen, you may want to disable and enable touch by finger for your account in Windows 10 using the following methods below.
Via the Registry Editor: Navigate to this path
- HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Wisp\Touch
- Modify the value data of “TouchGate DWORD”
0 = Disable
1 = Enable
Via the Device Manager: To have this disabled or enabled via the device manager, follow the following steps below.
- type device manager and lunch it.
- Search for Human interface Device or
Press Windows + X, Click DeviceManager.
- Search for Human interface Device or
To enable the touchscreen input, follow the same exact steps
What Is the Registry Editor? The Registry Editor is an advanced tool for viewing and modifying settings in the registry. These information contains information about how your computer runs etc.
Windows stores its configuration information in a database called the registry and this is organised in a tree format. Although Registry Editor enables you to inspect and modify the registry, normally you do not need to do so, and making incorrect changes can break your system. An advanced user who is prepared to both edit and restore the registry can safely use Registry Editor for such tasks as eliminating duplicate entries or deleting entries for programs that have been uninstalled or deleted.
To launch the Registry Editor, type rub ib the Windows search button – type in “regedit.exe” – Click OK.
This will open up the registry hives as shown below
On the Registry Editor, you can perform the following tasks as listed below
- Find a string, value, or key - Add a registry key to Favourites - Add a key - Add a value - Change a value - Delete a key or value - Rename a key or value - Copy a registry key name - Restore the registry - Export all or part of the registry to a text file - Import some or all of the registry - Export a registry key to a hive file - Import a registry key from a hive file
Information stored in the Registry is divided into several predefined sections called “hives”. A registry hive is a top level registry key predefined by the Windows system to store registry keys for specific objectives. On my Windows 10 system, the Registry has 5 registry hives: – run “regedit.exe” on a Windows 10 via the run or search window and click on enter
Below is the output of the registry hives.
HKCR: Abbreviated from the registry key name HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT. HKCR stores information about registered applications, such as Associations from File Extensions and OLE Object Class IDs tying them to the applications used to handle these items.
HKCU: Abbreviated from the registry key name HKEY_CURRENT_USER. HKCU stores settings that are specific to the currently logged-in user. The HKCU key is a link to the subkey of HKEY_USERS that corresponds to the user; the same information is reflected in both locations.
HKLM: Abbreviated from the registry key name HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. HKLM stores settings that are general to all users on the computer. On my XP system, HKLM contains five subkeys, HARDWARE, SAM, SECURITY, SOFTWARE and SYSTEM.
HKU: Abbreviated from the registry key name HKEY_USERS. HKU contains subkeys corresponding to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER keys for each user registered on the machine.
HKCC: Abbreviated from the registry key name HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG. HKCC contains information gathered at runtime; information stored in this key is not permanently stored on the hard disk, but rather regenerated at boot time.
This can also be accessed via the Windows Admin Center
There are several different kinds of keyboards for PCs. The most common type is a physical, external keyboard that plugs into your PC. But Windows has a built-in Ease of Access tool called the On-Screen Keyboard (OSK) that can be used instead of a physical keyboard.
You don’t need a touchscreen to use the OSK. It displays a visual keyboard with all the standard keys, so you can use your mouse or another pointing device to select keys, or use a physical single key or group of keys to cycle through the keys on the screen.
To open the On-Screen Keyboard
- Click on Start,
- Select Settings
- Ease of Access
- click on keyboard
On the right pane, turn on the toggle
- Under Use the On-Screen Keyboard.
A keyboard that can be used to move around the screen and enter text will appear on the screen. The keyboard will remain on the screen until you close it.
Note: You can also use your keyboard to turn the on-screen keyboard on or off.
Via the Command Prompt: You can open the OSK via the command prompt the follow ways
Same principle can be used to launch the OSK from powerShell.
The On-Screen keyboard is an accessibility feature built into Windows that can be utilised whenever the physical keyboard on your computer is malfunctioning.
However, the on-screen keyboard might not be needed when you are implemented certain lockdown scenarios or due to space, it consumes when it starts automatically as soon as you login to your computer, with the later, this can be quite frustrating. To prevent the on-screen keyboard from starting automatically, use the following methods.
Via the Control Panel: Launch the control panel and navigate through the following areas
- Click on Ease of Access
Ease of Access Center,
- Modify the settings as desired for your keyboard
Modify as shown below
Via the Settings Window: Search for Ease of Access Center as shown below
This will open the following windows below, – Switch of “use the On-Screen Keyboard”
Via the registry: This can be achieved by searching under the Windows search “Regedit.exe” and navigate to the following location
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
- SOFTWARE
- Microsoft
- Windows
- CurrentVersion
- Authentication
- LogonUI
Double click on “ShowTabletKeyboard” and set it to “1” to enable it. Set it to “0” to disable it.
Note: If this key does not exist, you can create it. Here it is set to zero (disabled)
Via the “Msconfig“ or “Task manager”: This can also be one via the “msconfig“ or “task manager”, then check under the “Startup” tab to disable (uncheck) any keyboard software that might be running.
Now in Windows 10 you will be redirected to select “Task Manager“, then select the “Startup” tab to disable keyboard software.
- Launch msconfig or
- Task Manager directly
Here I would like to proceed with the msconfig option
Double click on the System Configuration, this will open the System Configuration Window.
Here you can disable any keyboard software that is running
Via the OSK in windows 10: Disable OSK in windows 10
- Click on Windows from C drive
- Click on system32
- Open properties of “OSK”.
- Go to the security tab, and select advanced
- Change Ownership from Trusted Installer as shown below to the Administrators user,
- Clcik ok.
- Go to edit, select Add option, then add “everyone”.
- Lastly, deny “full control” to everyone
Via the Command Prompt: You can use the command prompt in the following ways to disable the on-screen keyboard service.
- Click Start,
- Type "CMD" in the Start Search box.
- Right-click Command Prompt or CMD,
- Select run as Administrator.
- In the command prompt window, enter the command below and press enter:
sc config “TabletInputService” start= disabled
Next, enter the following commands below to stop the service.
"sc stop"“TabletInputService”
This will stop the service that was already running.
Note: To re-enable the service, user the commands: sc config “TabletInputService” start= autosc start “TabletInputService”
Are you currently annoyed with the login screen and the frequent need to have your password entered in order to be granted access? This method will help you go directly to the login screen.
From the search menu, type regedit and hit enter or double click on it – If this prompts the UAC, simply select Yes as shown below.
Or search for Run, in the run dialog box, type regedit and hit ok. This will open the registry editor. – Expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE in the left pane. – Double-click to expand SOFTWARE – Double-click to expand Policies. – Double-click to expand Microsoft. – Now, don’t double-click but right-click Windows. Note: When the Personalisation folder isn’t available, then you can follow these steps
– Click New and then click Key. – Rename New Key #1 that you just created as Personalisation and hit Enter – On the Personalisation folder, – Right-click in the right pane of the Registry Editor, – Select New and then select DWORD (32-bit) Value. – You will see a new item pop-up in – On the right pane of the Registry Editor, titled New Value #1. – Rename it as NoLockScreen and hit Enter.
Note: In my case, this folder is already available. – select New and then select DWORD (32-bit) Value. – In the right pane of the Registry Editor, titled New Value #1. – Rename it as NoLockScreen and hit Enter. – Under Value data, change the value from 0 to 1 and click OK.
When your PC awakes from sleep mode, you may still see the login screen.First of all, Open RUN like before.
Type gpedit.msc and press enter. It will open windows group policy editor – Go to Computer Configuration – Administrative Templates – Control Panel and – Personalisation.
– Press ok – Run gpupdate /force
Alternatively, you can sign-out and resign-in to have the policy applied.
Most at times by default, when a USB device is connected to the computer, Windows automatically detects the device, it installs all needed driver automatically. This implies a USB can be readily used thereby leading to a security breach. Because of this, I will be blocking access to USB, thereby preventing security leakage of confidential data and also the possible attacks of viruses into the network. Below are the steps to disable the installation of removable devices.
Disable Installation of Removable Devices in Local Group Policy Editor
Type run in the Windows Search box as shown below
- Click on the Run App
- In the Run dialog window, type in "gpedit.msc" as shown below and
- Click on ok
This will launch the group policy editor. The next step will be to configure the the policy to prevent the installation of removable media.
- Click on the User Configuration,
- Click Administrative Template to expand the menu.
- Click on System, and
- Expand on Device Installation
- Double click on Prevent Installation of removable devices and Enable it.
In this same way, the policy can be disabled back.
