I don't have a touchscreen. How can I do gestures on my Windows 8 laptop's touchpad?

05
2014-04
  • MatthewThepc

    I just got a new Windows 8 laptop, but it doesn't have a touchscreen, and it seems like a lot of the gestures are designed for touchscreens, and not current mice & touchpads. Is there a way to use the new gestures on my laptop's touchpad?

  • Answers
  • nhinkle

    Yes, there will be, but the drivers haven't been released yet (the thinking is that they'll be released on October 26th, when the first Windows 8 devices are released).

    Synaptics is including the following Windows 8 gestures in its Synaptics Gesture Suite 12.3 & up:

    Synaptics Windows 8 Gestures

    The SGS 12.3 driver should come with your Windows 8 laptop. If it's not included with your laptop, locate the driver download pages for your laptop manufacturer (such as HP, Dell, or Lenovo) and download the driver for your Synaptics touchpad.

  • SnippetSpace

    Another alternative to the touchpad while waiting for its drivers is the Microsoft Touch Mouse. It just got updated with new drivers a couple of days ago and supports up to 3 finger swipes.

    Really awesome to move around windows 8 with: http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/en-us/p/touch-mouse#windows-8

    I would say it is a lot nicer to use than your trackpad will eventually be :).

  • Caleb Jares

    Another option for gestures that's coming out soon is the Leap Motion, which will emulate touch gestures. It's a $70 usb-sized device that recognizes hand gestures with extraordinary accuracy (it blows Kinect out of the water). From their about page:

    Do you support windows?

    Yes! We also support native touch emulation for Windows 8.


  • Related Question

    I have Elan Touch Drivers presently installed on my laptop touchpad. Can I install Synaptics?
  • Abhishek Sha

    I have Elan Touch Drivers. I was wondering if I could install Synaptics Touch Drivers, because Elan has announced no plans on those extremely intuitive Windows 8 touchpad drivers that Synaptics will release in the near future.

    Also, how do I determine how many touch points my touchpad supports? I know that it supports dual-touch.


  • Related Answers
  • Shinrai

    As a rule, you should not expect drivers from one vendor to work for devices from another vendor. This is like trying to use an AMD video driver on an Nvidia graphics card. (The exception to this rule is, of course, the base drivers that come with Windows - for some devices, they may offer full functionality...but I'm guessing these don't, because you're asking this question.)