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I'd like to disable internal keyboard in my notebook so that I can place normal keyboard on top of it. I only need this for a short while, so I'd like to avoid uninstalling the keyboard and having to restart the system.

I can see no option to disable the device, although I thought I would:

image description

Tomáš Zato
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  • Does this answer your question? [How can I disable my laptop's built-in keyboard in Windows 7?](https://superuser.com/questions/346570/how-can-i-disable-my-laptops-built-in-keyboard-in-windows-7) – Codeguard Nov 04 '20 at 14:25

2 Answers2

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You can disable a device in Device Manager without uninstalling the drivers. Simply right-click the device > properties > disable.

I use this method on a number of laptops.

Some also come with touch-pad managers that have access to disable the keyboard when another is present. I do that with my mouse and touch-pad. Whenever I have my Bluetooth mouse plugged in the touch-pad gets disabled.

I use a Dell Latitude and have Windows 7 Enterprise. Your experience might depend on what device manufacture and what hardware configuration software is available. The Device Manager option is fairly straight forward.

Matthew Williams
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    There is no such option. I also thought there is, but couldn't find it. I said explicitily in my question that I cannot see the option to disable the keyboard. If you see it and I don't, maybe there's something wrong with my windows though. – Tomáš Zato Apr 04 '17 at 09:22
  • I would agree there must be something wrong or you do not have the administrator rights you think you do. Try Right-clicking device manager and running as administrator. – Matthew Williams Apr 04 '17 at 13:53
  • I certainly have admin privilegies, our company does disable UAC on our notebooks making Admin the default. I updated the question with a screenshot. Can you 100% confirm that you don't have the "Disable" option disabled as I do? – Tomáš Zato Apr 04 '17 at 14:22
  • I have the ability to disable device once I use my administrator account. The other option that I located that may work is: [link](https://www.tenforums.com/general-support/65344-how-disable-only-main-keyboard.html) About half way down there is a comment about updating drivers to japanese drivers. This will prevent the device from starting and allow you to disable it. Like I said I can also disable it normally, but I notice that mine says PS/2 Keyboard and not HID. Seems we are using different drivers for our keyboards. – Matthew Williams Apr 04 '17 at 17:19
  • I tried the same on my home laptop and I also cannot disable the device. I am now quite convinced that one can only disable external keyboards and mice and therefore this answer is not really useful. I know you can install invalid drivers to void the device temporarily, but as I said in my question, I'd rather not change the drivers at all. – Tomáš Zato Apr 04 '17 at 18:37
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You could open it and unhook the ribbon cable then put the keyboard back in, that's what I did with my annoying touchpad, since even disabling that in the bios did not disable it's tap function in ubuntu.
Unless you have a laptop with warranty or 2 left hands, then don't

Agterbosch
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