Windows – Temporarily disabling in-built laptop keyboard while keeping an external keyboard working

keyboardwindows 10

I have a Windows 10 laptop (Dell XPS 17) on which a few of the keys have stopped working properly. I therefore have bought a replacement external keyboard (Logitech G710+) for home use.

When I travel with the laptop, I'll still use the broken keyboard. When at home, I'll use the external keyboard.

I want to place the external keyboard on top of the laptop keyboard, but the problem is that then some keys will be hit inadvertently. Therefore I'd like to a convenient way of turning the laptop keyboard on and off.

There's a superficially similar question here but it's different because there the OP was willing to accept the permanent disabling of the laptop keyboard via the uninstallation of the driver.

Best Answer

Nirsoft makes a handy program called DevManView that allows you to quickly disable / enable a device on your machine. In addition to this, and perhaps more relevant to you, is that it has command line functionality. With that, you could create a shortcut that disables the keyboard, and another that enables the keyboard (see the command line reference in the link above).

If the keyboard is re-enabled on startup and this is a problem, I suppose you could put a shortcut in your startup folder that disables the keyboard.

Although it's not what you asked, it's worth noting that there are replacement keyboards available for your laptop for < $20. Replacement is usually fairly easy, providing that you are competent with a screwdriver and follow directions carefully...

Related Question