Tell me more ×
Super User is a question and answer site for computer enthusiasts and power users. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 9 down vote favorite
2

Im looking how I can disable my laptop keyboard, I looked into the Device manager and there is no "Disable this device", Don't want to uninstall it, just turn it off.

I'm just troubleshooting some hardware issues.

any suggestions ?

Thanks

share|improve this question
1  
How were you planning to unlock it again if the keyboard isn't working? Or do you mean you want to use an external keyboard instead? – Col Sep 21 '09 at 14:34
1  
@Col - I'm thinking he would use the mouse. – ldigas Sep 21 '09 at 14:36
1  
@idigas some kind of super secret mouse gesture presumably? – Col Sep 21 '09 at 14:46
1  
Autohotkey could do it, and have a suitably obscure reactivation hotkey. (Like, say, doublepress q while holding winkey with caps lock on and the cd drive open) – Phoshi Sep 21 '09 at 15:01
2  
i prefer using a hammer. think i still have a few keys from the last keyboard i disabled. yep, here they are, K, I, U, C, T, F. – quack quixote Oct 26 '09 at 19:00
show 1 more comment

6 Answers

up vote 9 down vote

Revolter answer is actually not correct.

when trying the described manipulation, I got the following message :

ACPI\PNP0303\4&378F8A46&0                                   : Disable failed
No devices disabled

I think that the reality is too bad : there is no nice solution for disabling a laptop keyboard without physically removing it. (if you uninstall the driver, Windows will re-install it automatically).

See this discussion forum for more precision : http://www.techsupportforum.com/hardware-support/laptop-support/250095-how-disable-laptop-keyboard.html

However, there is a way to uninstall a laptop keyborad with software :by installing an incompatible driver !!

The instructions are:

  1. Go to Device Manager and select the keyboard driver for your laptop. Right-clic-> Properties
  2. Click on the rdiver panel and select the "Update..." button.
  3. Here you can choose an incompatible driver (you should unselect the option "Find compatible driver"). The one I have chosen (and the safer) is the "HID Keyboard Device"
  4. Restart and that's it !! Your are done

I hope it will help other folks here.

Fabien.

share|improve this answer
1  
Posting to confirm that installing an incompatible driver as advised by fabien4747 of course works. When guessing for an incompatible driver, I chose a different language – Japanese – when my keyboard is US. I also chose a different brand of driver software – Toshiba – when my laptop is a Dell. The system needs to be rebooted after the hopefully incompatible driver is installed. Thanks fabien4747! This advice saved a Vista laptop which had faulty keys which were registering when not pressed and interfering with an external USB keyboard. – user105106 Nov 12 '11 at 9:58
up vote 5 down vote

Few suggestions:
LockKeyboard
KeyboardLock

or maybe the best yet: Kid-key-lock (don't ask, I didn't make the name)

Why do you wish to lock your keyboard ? Wouldn't just locking the user out do the job ?

share|improve this answer
Thanks Idigas, Im using a second keyboard and I just want to lock the laptop-keyboard (the embedded one), these tools are locking all the keyboards. – Revolter Sep 21 '09 at 15:00
Oh, I see. Ups, yeah. I understood it wrong then - I thought you wanted to lock your keyboard for, when, for example, you're working and putting stuff on your laptop. – ldigas Sep 21 '09 at 15:33
up vote 5 down vote

The only way is to physically disconnect the keyboard.

See this article : "Repairing the keyboards of Compaq laptops".

If what the guy describes in the above page solves the problem, you might save yourself the trouble.

If it doesn't, then repeat the operation, but just omit the described step 8 and do not reconnect the cable.

(I take no responsibility for any mistakes in the execution of this operation.)

share|improve this answer
any easy way ? :) – Revolter Sep 21 '09 at 15:31
2  
Yes, take it to a repairman. – harrymc Sep 21 '09 at 16:10
2  
Another idea is to install on purpose an incompatible driver for the keyboard. This will disable it for sure. – harrymc Sep 21 '09 at 16:26
up vote 5 down vote accepted

You may use devcon from Microsoft

The DevCon utility is a command-line utility that acts as an alternative to Device Manager. Using DevCon, you can enable, disable, restart, update, remove, and query individual devices or groups of devices. DevCon also provides information that is relevant to the driver developer and is not available in Device Manager.

the link contain a detailed page about how to use it,

for your case, just put

devcon find *

To lists device instances of all devices that are present on the local computer.then,

devcon disable [ your-keyboard-HardwareID ]

to disable devices that match that specific hardware or instance ID

share|improve this answer
Unfortunately, it does not work with Windows 7 – Shivan Raptor Jul 27 '10 at 14:58
1  
@Shivan Raptor In Windows Driver Kit for windows 7, there is a version which works, if I remember corectly. – AndrejaKo Jan 21 '11 at 19:06
2  
@AndrejaKo: The Windows Driver Kit is 620mb – Casebash Jan 1 '12 at 4:41
Did someone success to disable keyabord like this? I am able to disable my mouse but it doesnt work on keyboard. It says ": Disable failed". – mist Nov 28 '12 at 23:04
up vote 1 down vote

Check this out! http://www.100dof.com/products/kid-key-lock

I had the same problem. It seems to work pretty well.

ScreenShot

share|improve this answer
1  
Explain the product a little bit more, make the answer more independent of the link. Welcome to Super User! – studiohack♦ Oct 29 '12 at 2:03
up vote 0 down vote

+1 for the answer provided by fabien7474! With one slight difference - my Asus UL56V with Windows 7 showed "Keyboard Device Filter" and "HID Keyboard Device". By disabling the second option, I ended up disabling the USB keyboard :) But disabling Keyboard Device Filter by changing to a Japanese keyboard did the trick for me!

P.S. No one on the whole Internet managed to come up with such an elegant fix for such a common (and serious) problem!

Cheers!

share|improve this answer

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.