You can stop the onscreen touch keyboard from appearing automatically on your Windows laptop by adjusting a setting in your device's typing preferences.
Stopping the Touch Keyboard from Appearing Automatically
The most common reason the onscreen keyboard appears unexpectedly on a laptop (especially when not in tablet mode) is a setting that tells Windows to show it when no physical keyboard is detected. You can disable this using the following steps based on the provided reference:
- Select Start > Settings > Devices > Typing.
- Under the Touch keyboard section, look for the option "Show the touch keyboard when not in tablet mode and there's no keyboard attached".
- If this setting is currently turned On, select it to turn it Off.
Turning this setting Off will prevent the touch keyboard from automatically appearing on your screen when you are using your laptop in standard mode without an attached external keyboard.
Why Does the Onscreen Keyboard Appear?
The onscreen keyboard, also known as the touch keyboard, is designed to help users input text, particularly on touch-enabled devices or when a physical keyboard isn't available. On laptops, it might appear automatically in these scenarios:
- When the device is in Tablet Mode.
- When no physical keyboard is detected (and the setting mentioned above is enabled).
- When an accessibility feature like the On-Screen Keyboard (a separate tool under Ease of Access/Accessibility settings) is activated.
The method described above specifically addresses the second scenario, preventing its automatic appearance based on hardware detection outside of tablet mode.
Alternative Onscreen Keyboards
It's worth noting that Windows has two main types of onscreen keyboards:
- Touch Keyboard: This is the modern keyboard optimized for touch input, appearing automatically in certain scenarios or when tapping a text field on a touch device.
- On-Screen Keyboard: This is an accessibility tool found in the Ease of Access or Accessibility settings. It's designed for users who cannot use a physical keyboard and includes features like scanning or click-to-type. If this is the keyboard you see, you need to disable it through Accessibility settings, not the Typing settings.
The steps provided specifically manage the Touch Keyboard's automatic appearance.
Turning off the automatic appearance setting is the primary way to "remove" its frequent or unexpected presence on your screen during typical laptop use.
