How to Disable the Built-In Laptop Keyboard in Windows

Disable your Windows laptop's keyboard and migrate to a bigger one with these tips.

Sometimes you don't want your laptop's keyboard to take inputs. This is usually because you're plugging in an external keyboard, either because the built-in one is broken or you just want a larger typing space with a full-sized keyboard.

However, the keyboard being an integral part of your portable computer, disabling its primary input method is a little tricky. Here, we show you how to permanently disable the laptop keyboard in Windows.

For this, you’ll need to identify the integrated keyboard in Device Manager. Since Device Manager will list all the recognized keyboards, including external keyboards, here’s how you can identify your laptop keyboard from the list.

1. Press Win + R to open Run. 2. Type devmgmt.msc and click OK to open Device Manager. 3. In Device Manager, expand the Keyboards section. 4. From this step you will get the keyboard driver id as red marked in picture. 5. Now Press the Win key and type cmd in the Windows search bar. 6. Right-click on Command Prompt and select Run as Administrator. Click Yes when the UAC prompt appears. 7. In the Command Prompt window, type the following command and press Enter: sc config i8042prt start= disabled 8. When the success message appears, close the Command Prompt, and restart your PC. After the restart, your laptop keyboard will stop registering any inputs. 9. If you change your mind and want to re-enable the keyboard, you can use the following command sc config i8042prt start= auto