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
Step 2. In the Device Manager window, find and expand the ‘Keyboards‘ entry.
Step 3. Right-click on the internal Keyboard and select the
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 choose 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
Step 2. In the Device Manager window, find and expand the ‘Keyboards‘ entry.
Step 3. Right-click on the internal Keyboard and select the
Step 4. Right-click on the internal keyboard and select the
Step 5. In the Properties dialog box, switch to the
Step 6. In the Property drop-down menu, select
Step 7. In the Value section, please right-click on the first entry and select
Step 8. Now, press the
Step 9. In the Run dialog box, type
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
Step 13. Under the Options section, click on the
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
Step 16. Click
Step 17. Click
Step 18. Again, click on the
Step 19. In the Device Manager window, find and expand the ‘Keyboards‘ entry.
Step 20. Right-click on the internal Keyboard and select the
Step 21. Reboot your laptop.
Once you complete the above steps, your laptop’s in-house keyboard should now be disabled.
The right policy to edit
“Prevent installation of devices that match any of these device instance IDs”
but your screen shots show
“prevent installation of devices using drivers that match these device setup classes”
Thanks anyway
Sorry, I will change it.
After all, the device classes may be easier to deal with, if only I knew how to specify them (is it “keyboards”?)