The first touchscreen Chromebook was released in 2013, and since then users have enjoyed modern touch input for everything from games to note-taking apps and more. However, during my time as a Chromebook expert at Best Buy, there’s one thing I’ve realized and that’s the fact that not everyone likes or prefers a touchscreen device, too practical though.

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It’s not just the touchscreen – the Chromebook hardware’s touchpad can also be finicky or cumbersome and inconvenient for some users, and it’s common that typing without lifting your palms from keyboard space can cause erratic behavior. such as accidental clicks out of text fields, navigation out of the desired web page and more.

Today I’m going to show you a cool trick that will allow you to disable and re-enable your Chromebook’s touchscreen and/or touchpad at will so that you can get the best computing experience on the operating system. popular from Google. We’ll be using something called a Chrome Developer Flag, so if you’re not sure what that is, check out our handy guide. You can follow along without fully understanding the flags, as these are just quick ways for developers or testers to enable new experimental features without completely changing the operating system, so let’s get started.

Enable debug shortcuts

The first thing you’ll need to do is press the “All” button on your Chromebook’s keyboard. It’s the magnifying glass icon that’s positioned on the far left where Caps Lock would be on a Windows device. Type “chrome://flags” without the quotes and press Enter.

You will be redirected to a new page called “Experiences”. These are your flags! Now use the search bar on the page (not above for browser, it’s different) to search for “Ash debugging shortcuts”. To the right of this flag will be a drop-down box that says “Disabled”. Click on it and change it to “Enabled”. A blue “Relaunch” button will appear at the bottom right of the window, prompting you to do so in order to apply the flag’s effects. Clicking it will shut down and restart your Chromebook.

Debugging keyboard shortcuts

Enables additional keyboard shortcuts useful for debugging Ash. – Mac, Windows, Linux, Chrome OS, Android, Fuchsia

#ash-debug-shortcuts

Disabling the touchscreen or touchpad

Awesome! Now that you’re up and running again, you should know that there are no visual controls to disable or re-enable the touchscreen or touchpad. In fact, you’ll be using a keyboard shortcut instead. Go ahead and press “Search + Shift + T” to toggle touchscreen capabilities. You won’t get any audible or visual input that this has been done, but if you try to touch or swipe your screen now, nothing should happen – here!

You can re-enable touch capabilities by pressing the exact same combination on your keyboard, and you’ll immediately and flawlessly see the touchscreen start working again. Similarly, you press “Search + Shift + P” to enable and disable your Chromebook’s touchpad. Once you press this combo, you won’t be able to press, swipe, or even scroll the pad again until you disengage it by pressing this combo again.

I’m interested to hear in the comments which of you are going to use one of these hotkeys and flag, or if you’re too tightly tied to your touchscreen or touchpad. Either way, it’s a fun experience. I know a lot of people will enjoy such a thing, although there’s no guarantee that Google will keep it around forever, so enjoy it while you can!

I just want the instructions!

1. Press the “All” button on your Chromebook keyboard
2. Enter chrome://flags
3. Search for “Debugging keyboard shortcuts” and activate it
4. Click the “Relaunch” button at the bottom right of the screen
5. Press “Search + Shift + T” to enable or disable your touchscreen
6. Press “Search + Shift + P” to enable or disable your touchpad
7. Enjoy while you can!