Touchpad test

How to test your touchpad

1. Disconnect or do not touch any external mouse, so every tick comes from the touchpad.
2. Move the pointer into the box and work through the checklist: move, click or tap, double-click, right-click (two-finger tap or the corner, depending on your settings), click-and-drag sideways, two-finger scroll up and down, two-finger scroll sideways, pinch to zoom, and middle click if your touchpad has one.
3. Checks passed counts the ticks. Press Reset to test again, for example after changing a setting.

If a check does not tick

• Tap does nothing: tap-to-click may be turned off. Check your touchpad settings, or press the pad down until it clicks.
• Right-click does not tick: the secondary click may be set to a different gesture, such as two-finger tap, a corner click or the area of a separate button.
• Scrolling does not tick: two-finger scrolling may be disabled, or the driver may be using edge scrolling instead.
• Pinch does not tick: browsers report pinch as a zoom-scroll event, which some touchpads, drivers or browsers do not send.
• Drag does not tick: press and hold, then move at least a short distance sideways before letting go. Tap-to-drag settings change how this works.
• Nothing works at all: the touchpad may be switched off with a function key or in settings, or the driver may need attention.

Limits

• Gestures your operating system keeps for itself, such as three- or four-finger swipes to switch apps or desktops, never reach the page and cannot be tested here.
• A tick means the event arrived, not that the touchpad is perfect: dead spots, jumpy tracking or a sticky click still need a careful look while you move across the whole surface.
• Touchscreens are a different device; use the touch screen test.

For a closer look at holding the button down, use the mouse drag test; for scrolling in detail, the mouse scroll wheel test; for buttons on an external mouse, the mouse test.