Here's a low tech fix for covering the touch pad rather than turning it off or disabling it. This might be useful if you want instant access to the touch pad for some reason. Cut a piece of paper sized to the touch pad. With a piece of tape, carefully apply one edge of the paper to the lap top, being careful to keep the tape off the touch pad. This will let you touch the area without manipulating the pad, but it will let you hav instant access to the pad by flipping the paper up. Low tech? Yes. Funny looking? Sort of. Useful? Yes, especially on a shared computer. posting from Windsor Maine; Steve Hoad VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List. To join or leave the list, send a message to [log in to unmask] In the body of the message, simply type "subscribe vicug-l" or "unsubscribe vicug-l" without the quotations. VICUG-L is archived on the World Wide Web at http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/vicug-l.html