Question: I own a Dell Inspiron N5050 Notebook running Windows 7 Home Premium. I am trying to permanently disable the touchpad. I installed the appropriate driver in order to manage my touchpad preferences, and successfully disabled it - but once the machine was rebooted, the touchpad was on again. I really don't care if I will need to keep disabling it each time I boot up, but does anyone know of a way to permanently disable it?

Answer: 
**Approach 1: BIOS**

The touchpad can usually be disabled in BIOS. On my Dell Latitude E6430s, the option is *POST Behavior*, *Mouse/Touchpad*. There is even an option to disable the touchpad only if an external mouse is attached.

**Approach 2: Device Manager**

Open Control Panel, System, Device Manager. Navigate to the mouse, right click on it and click Disable.

**Approach 3: Physically unplug**

According to a disassembly video, it appears that you can unplug the touchpad by removing the keyboard (at 3:45) and removing the small ribbon cable near the touchpad.

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NR0iRYLEO9s>
You asked just the right guy! I have an N5050 with an MS3500 USB mouse. To avoid physical alterations install both MS mouse and keyboard center 2.3.180.0 and Dell Touchpad driver by Alps electric 7.1107.115.102. Go to control panel click mouse and look for a touchpad tab. If not there something is missing. Click touchpad and go to buttons. Disable both buttons and touchpad. Click disable when USB mouse is present.