Recently I purchased a new laptop and noticed that its inbuilt keyboard is too small to type. The manufacturer has made the keyboards smaller so that it is lighter and easy to carry out. But this practice has made typing difficult on laptops compared to on the desktop with an external keyboard. Finally, I decided to disable the built-in keyboard and attach an external keyboard to carry out my day-to-day job.
Though an external keyboard is difficult to carry, it is convenient for fast typing, and also it comes very cheaply in the market. If you also want to disable the laptop’s internal keyboard and put an external keyboard on your Windows 10 machine, this article will help you to do the same.
There are at least two ways through which we can disable the laptop keyboard on Windows 10:-
- Disable Laptop Keyboard via Device Manager
- Disable Laptop Keyboard using Group Policy
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How to Disable Laptop Internal Keyboard via Device Manager?
Group Policy is the easiest and convenient way to disable the Laptop Keyboard on Windows 10. However, this method may not work with every Laptop. To disable the internal Keyboard, perform the following steps:-
Step 1. Click on the Start button and type device manager. In the available top results, click on the “Device Manager” to open it.
Step 2. In the Device Manager window, find and expand the ‘Keyboards’ entry.
Step 3. Right-click on the internal Keyboard and select the “Disable” option. If you don’t see a Disable option listed, click Uninstall.
Once you complete the above steps, your laptop’s internal keyboard should now be disabled. Disabling the keyboard is acceptable; however, if you don’t see a Disable option and chosen Uninstall option on your laptop, it will install the drivers again and start working once you restart your laptop.
How to Disable Laptop Internal Keyboard using Group Policy?
It is convenient for those who don’t find Disable option in Device Manager for the internal keyboards. Group Policy Editor is another method to enable the device installation restriction. Using this method, you can block your Laptop keyboard from reinstalling when you start up your device.
Before proceeding with further steps, ensure that gpedit.msc is only applicable to Windows 10 Pro and Enterprise edition devices. Those who are still using Windows 10 Home edition need to enable the Group Policy on their machine first.
Step 1. Click on the Start button and type device manager. In the available top results, click on the “Device Manager” to open it.
Step 2. In the Device Manager window, find and expand the ‘Keyboards’ entry.
Step 3. Right-click on the internal Keyboard and select the “Disable” option. If you don’t see a Disable option listed, click Uninstall.
Step 4. Right-click on the internal keyboard and select the Properties option.
Step 5. In the Properties dialog box, switch to the Details tab.
Step 6. In the Property drop-down menu, select Hardware Ids from the list.
Step 7. In the Value section, please right-click on the first entry and select Copy (Paste it in a notepad file).
Step 8. Now, press the Windows logo + R keys from the keyboard to open the Run dialog box.
Step 9. In the Run dialog box, type gpedit.msc and click the OK button to open the Local Group Policy Editor window.
Step 10. From the left side pane, navigate to the following path:-
Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Device Installation > Device Installation Restrictions
Step 11. On the right side of the Device Installation Restrictions folder, double click on the policy “Prevent installation of devices that match any of these device instance IDs” to modify it.
Step 12. Select the Enabled option.
Step 13. Under the Options section, click on the Show button.
Step 14. In the “Show Contents” dialog box, under the Value column, double-click the space bar and paste the ID you have copied in Step 7.
Step 15. Click OK.
Step 16. Click Apply.
Step 17. Click OK.
Step 18. Again, click on the Start button and type device manager. In the available top results, click on the “Device Manager” to open it.
Step 19. In the Device Manager window, find and expand the ‘Keyboards’ entry.
Step 20. Right-click on the internal Keyboard and select the Uninstall device option.
Step 21. Reboot your laptop.
Once you complete the above steps, your laptop’s in-house keyboard should now be disabled.