If we had a dollar for every email we have received which said “This is driving me crazy! Whenever I’m typing something my cursor randomly jumps all over!” We’d have a lot more money. We always answer with this question (like a lawyer, we never ask a question we don’t already know the answer to 🙂 ) “Are you using a laptop with a mouse?” The answer is always “Yes”. Hmmm…are we that smart we can guess things like this and be right? Nope. We know exactly what they’re asking and what’s happening and how to fix it. You see, we made the transition to laptops years ago and we have had it happen to us. You might call it the jumping cursor disease, but it’s not a disease, it’s your typing habits. It’s called Lazy Wrist. When you use a mouse with a laptop, you don’t use the touchpad, but unless you’ve turned it off or changed the settings, the touchpad is still working even though you never use it, because you’re using a mouse.
It would be more aptly called Dragging Palms than Lazy Wrist, but if you’ve switched from desktops to laptops, at some point in time you’re going to have the jumping cursor happen to you. It’s caused by you lightly touching the touchpad with your palms or wrists when you’re typing. Some touchpads are so sensitive all you have to do is get very close to them and not actually touch them — and your cursor will jump.
OK — now we’re going to give you some advice to help you fix it.
The following screenshots and information come from our experience with Dell laptops (that’s the only kind we’ve ever had). But most all Windows laptops have similar settings. If you can’t find similar settings on your laptop, try updating your touchpad drivers — but always update them from your computer manufacturer’s site – and not from some fly-by-night driver site.
OK first step: Go to Control Panel, Hardware and Sound and click Mouse.
In the mouse properties dialog you should see a tab for your touchpad at the top:
Click the touchpad tab and look for a setting like the one below that says: “Disable touchpad & pointstick when USB mouse present. “
If you have this setting or a similar setting it, select it, save your new settings, and reboot your computer. Your touchpad should now be disabled when you’re using a mouse. If you unplug your mouse your touchpad will automatically become active.
If you can’t find a similar setting, try updating your touchpad drivers (ONLY from your computer manufacturer’s website, remember…) and go back to the same dialog and see if you have that setting after updating the drivers. If so select it.
If none of the above works for you, don’t panic. You don’t have to live with the frustrating “Jumping Cursor syndrome” There’s a little free program called TouchFreeze that will disable your touchpad whenever you’re typing, thus eliminating the jumping cursor and thus helping you to keep your sanity.
Here’s a short description of TouchFreeze from its home page:
Annoyed when you are typing a document and accidentally the palm of your hand brushes the touchpad, changing the position of the cursor in your document or accidentally clicking on an option. TouchFreeze is simple utility for Windows to solve this problem. It automatically disables touchpad while you are typing text.
Thank you for this information. It has been driving me crazy, not only what you spoke about but having my text grow smaller or larger at a whim. Unfortunately though, I did what you said to do, but on my laptop it does not mention the name of my laptop on this screen. My laptop is an ASUS and I have Windows 8.1 on. I really look forward every day and week to receiving your newsletters, they are very informative. Keep up the good work.
I just wanted to thank you for printing the solution regarding the jumping mouse pointer. It is so annoying when I am typing a email and the page disappears because my mouse ran away. Thank you so much. You always have so much good advice. I always look forward to your next newsletter or the daily one.
Yes, I had this problem many times, one thing I ended up doing is pressing fn key & F7. this will disable the mouse, this way I happily type without the problem of jumping cursor. When I need the mouse again, press back the fn & F7. Back to normal!
This keyboard shortcuts works only on certain brands of touchpads/laptops. On my laptop fn + F7 clears the IE cache.
Thanks a lot for this information – you made my day!
Sincerely
JP
I don’t own a laptop, (desktop windows 7) but when I’m using Microsoft Works 9, word processor, after several lines my cursor starts jumping usually to previous lines. I have uninstalled then reinstalled Works 9 but no cure for the jumping cursor. It only does that in Works 9. Never online as in this message. Has anyone else had this problem?
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you! This jumping cursor “thing” has been driving me insane. My Dell laptop isn’t set up like your illustration; but Touch Freeze is working wonderfully. You have made my week! Bless you.