Use touchpad while "typing"?

Question

My laptop (a Sony Vaio on Windows 8) disables my touchpad when I "type". This means actually typing, or just holding down a key like say, W, A, S or D. The touchpad stays disabled for a short period (<1s), after releasing all keys. Naturally, I want to turn this feature off.
The touchpad uses a Synaptics driver, but I can't find a setting anywhere to enable the touchpad when typing.
I found values that allude to this functionality in the registry (e.g. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Synaptics\SynTP\TouchPadPS2\ZoneManager\TPTyping - Enabled), but their value is always 0, so I reckon it must be coming from somewhere else.
I've tried reducing the touchpad's sensitivity, as I read somewhere that there that certain values might secretly activate the "palm detection" functionality, which in turn secretly activates the "disable then you type" functionality, but to no avail. (Yes, I already went quite deep into the rabbit hole.)

Edit 14-11-12: I've updated the Synaptics driver using the one from the Synaptics site, but I still don't have a setting to enable the touchpad whilst typing. (Neither do I have the "PalmCheck" settings.)

Edit 27-11-12: I've gone back to the original driver, as the generic one had too many issues for my liking. This version doesn't have PalmCheck either, but like the generic one, it does have something called "SmartSense". Apart from the name, it looks like PalmCheck. Turning it off however, did not solve the problem.

Answer 1

This is called PalmCheck. To disable this, go to Mouse Properties in Control Panel, select the Device Settings tab, select the Synaptics Clickpad or similar device in the list and click Settings, and under PalmCheck in PalmCheck-Enhanced, drag the slider down towards Off.

Answer 2

Since disabling SmartSense didn't solve the problem for me, I had to dig a little deeper.
After much toil and bickering with various forms of Sony Support, I gave up and tried messing with the Registry. After some failed attempts to disable the Synaptics filter driver that's attached to the keyboard, I found something that worked.

Solution:
In the Registry, go to the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Synaptics\SynTP\Defaults, and set the value of all string entries of the form PalmKms…, to 0. (Of course, they probably don't all need to be 0, but have fun finding out which one(s) you actually need!)
These values determine the amount of ms that the touchpad stays disabled after keyboard input has been detected.

I think Sony will probably issue an update to the VAIO Control Center where you can simply disable this functionality, but until that day, this fixes the issue.

Answer 3

In Windows 8 the option is called SmartSense. Disabling this worked for me.

1. Press Win+W to bring up Settings Search
2. Type "synaptic"
3. Double Click "SmartSense"
4. Slide the Slider all the way to "Off"
5. Click "Close" and then "OK"

This will Disable the Anti-Palm detection which prevents simultaneous Keyboard and Mouse use. I recommend you re-enable this feature when you're not gaming as otherwise you risk problems while typing.

Answer 4

I have the exact same problem. had. I cannot seem to find the PalmCheck function mentioned above, neither can I find the PalmKms string entries in the Registry, I did find an easier way though.

Simply go to the properties window for your Synaptics Touch Pad Device Settings (instructions above) go to: Pointing->Sensitivity->Touch Checkng

The setting in this determines how long it disables the touchpad after using the keyboard. If set to the minimum (full left), it will disable the delay.

Answer 5

Apparently, there are different settings that can be set within the new Windows 8 metro-style settings page. The source article also covers how to apply a registry fix which will apply this setting to all local users. But I don't know how this affects the driver software settings that came with the device.

1. Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, tap Settings, and then tap Change PC settings. Or, if you're using a mouse, point to the lower-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer up, click Settings, and then click Change PC settings.
2. Tap or click PC and devices.
3. Tap or click Mouse and touchpad.
4. Under the To help prevent the cursor from accidentally moving while you type, change the delay before clicks work drop-down list, select No delay (always on).

^{Source: Button clicks for internal touchpads and pointing sticks are not responsive while or shortly after the keyboard is used}

Answer 6

Another solution which works for some people who have Synaptics software but do not have an option to disable palm guard which was posted on tenforums. Set the registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\PrecisionTouchPad\AAPThreshold to 0 and reboot. I thought I might not need the reboot but it turned out it was necessary. The original value of this registry key should be 2 or 3.

This worked for me on a Lenovo Thinkpad T540p laptop set to classic trackpoint mode (which disables all of the Synaptics settings that might otherwise allow me to disable the delay? idk, maybe it’s actually a Windows thing I tweaked?).

Answer 7

For certain Elan "smart pads", you need to set the registry key values DisableWhenType_Enable and DisableWhenType_DelayTime_Move in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Elantech\SmartPad\, to 0 with Regedit.

A reboot is not required, but you might need to go into the mouse settings panel, and toggle a setting, so you can click Apply. This will cause the touchpad driver to reload the settings from the registry. Alternatively, you can open the Elantech properties to have the registry keys load.

If your keyboard has a key to disable the touchpad (found on many laptop keyboards), you can also press this twice to reload the registry settings!