Fix: Cannot install Synaptics Touchpad Driver on Windows 10

Are you using a notebook and you can not install Synaptics Touchpad driver, because your Synaptics Touchpad hardware component is not recognized by your touchpad driver? If yes, you should read this article, because there are potential solutions which will help you to solve the problem. The touchpad is hardware component which simulates your mouse. You can not use your notebook without a functional touchpad. Actually, you can, but you will need an external wired or wireless mouse. So, what is the symptom of this problem? When you run touchpad driver you see an error Cannot Complete the Device Driver Installation Wizard.

This issue occurs because of different issues including incompatibility driver, hardware or system issues. Also, this issue occurs on the different operating system from Windows XP to Windows 10 and different notebooks models.

We created ten methods which will help you to solve the issue with the touchpad. So, let’s start.

Method 1: Enable Touchpad on your notebook

If the touchpad is not enabled, the driver will not be able to detect touchpad device. Based on that, you will need to enable Touchpad on your notebook, by following solution 1 (see the bottom of this article for link to Solution 1). After that, you will need to run touchpad driver. If you did not find the proper touchpad driver for your notebook, please read method 2.

Method 2: Install chipset driver and Intel I/O Acceleration driver

In the third method we will continue with driver installation, but not touchpad driver. Few users solved their problem by installing or reinstalling chipset driver and Intel I/O Acceleration driver. By using tips from method 2, please download and install drivers from official vendor’s website. If you can not find Intel I/O Acceleration driver on notebook vendor’s website, please open Intel website and download the latest driver. After you finish driver installation, do not forget to restart your Windows machine.

Method 3: Disable Driver Signature Enforcement

In this method, you will need to temporarily disable Driver Signature Enforcement (DSE). We will show you how to do it on Windows 10. The same procedure is compatible with Windows 8 and Windows 8.1.

  1. Left click on Start menu and type cmd to find Command Prompt
  2. Right click on Command Prompt and click Run as Administrator
  3. Click yes to confirm running Command Prompt as Administrator
  4. Type bcdedit /set testsigning on and press Enter to disable Driver Signature Enforcement
  5. Close Command Prompt
  6. Restart your Windows machine
  7. Install Synaptics Touchpad driver

Method 4: Perform changes in Registry database

In this method, you will need to do some changes using Registry Editor. Before you do any registry configuration, we are recommending you to the backup registry database. Why do you need to do registry backup? In the case of some misconfiguration, you can revert registry database to the previous state when everything worked without any problems. For this method, you will need to use a user account with Administrator privilege, because Standard user account is not allowed to do any system changes.

  1. Navigate on the following location HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
  2. Navigate on EnableInstallerDetection entry
  3. Right click on EnableInstallerDetection and choose Delete
  4. Click Yes to confirm deleting EnableInstallerDetection entry
  5. Close Registry Editor
  6. Restart your Windows machine
  7. Install Synaptics Touchpad driver
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jasmin Kahriman


Jasmin is a tech-savvy Systems Engineer with over 15 years of experience in IT infrastructure, holding multiple IT certifications including CNIP, MTA, MCP, MCSA, MCT, Server+, and Network+.