How to Disable Laptop Internal Keyboard on Windows 11?

If your laptop keyboard is too small to type, the keyboard is broken, or due to some reason, you want to disable the laptop’s built-in keyboard on Windows 11, this gearupwindows article will guide you. Once you disable the laptop’s internal keyboard, you can connect an external keyboard to type fast.

In this post, we will walk through two methods that allow you to disable the laptop keyboard on Windows 11. These are the following:-

1. Device Manager.
2. Local Group Policy Editor.

How to Turn Off Laptop Internal Keyboard using Device Manager?

To disable the internal Keyboard using Device Manager, use the following steps:-

Step 1. First, open the Device Manager.

To do that, right-click on the Start button and select Device Manager.

Step 2. When the Device Manager window appears on your computer, expand the Keyboards.

Step 3. Then, right-click on the internal Keyboard and choose the Disable option.

Quick Note: If you don’t find a Disable option in the right-click menu, click Uninstall device  to disable the keyboard temporarily. That means when you’ll restart your laptop, Windows will again install the drivers, and your keyboard will start working.

How to Disable Laptop Internal Keyboard using Group Policy?

Using the Local Group Policy Editor, you can apply a policy for your keyboard not to install the drivers. Using this method, you can block your Laptop keyboard from reinstalling the drivers when you restart your device.

Quick Note: Before proceeding with steps, ensure that gpedit.msc is only applicable to Windows 11 Pro and Enterprise edition devices. If you are using Windows 11 Home edition, you’ll need to enable the Group Policy on your machine. After that, use the following steps:-

Step 1. Open the Device Manager.

Step 2. Then, expand the ‘Keyboards’ entry.

Step 3. Next, right-click on the internal Keyboard and select the Properties option.

Step 4. Then, switch to the Details tab in the Properties dialog.

Step 5. After that, select Hardware Ids from the Property drop-down menu.

Step 6. In the Value area, right-click on the first entry and select the Copy option (paste it somewhere in Notepad).

Step 7. Now, open the Run dialog box by pressing the Windows + R keys on the keyboard.

Step 8. Then, type gpedit.msc and click the OK button to open the Local Group Policy Editor window.

Step 9. In the Local Group Policy Editor window, navigate to the following path from the left sidebar:-

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Device Installation > Device Installation Restrictions

Step 10. On the right side of the Device Installation Restrictions folder, double click the policy “Prevent installation of devices that match any of these device instance IDs”.

Step 11. Then, select the Enabled option.

Step 12. After that, click on the Show button under the Options section.

Step 13. In the “Show Contents” dialog box, under the Value column, double-click the space bar and paste the ID you have copied in Step 6.

Step 14. Click OK.

Step 15. Click Apply.

Step 16. Click OK.

Step 17. Again, open the Device Manager.

Step 18. Expand the ‘Keyboards’ entry.

Step 19. Right-click on the internal Keyboard and select the Uninstall device option.

Step 20. Reboot your laptop.

Once you complete the above steps, your laptop’s built-in keyboard should now be disabled. Even when you restart your laptop, drivers for the keyboard will not be installed.