How to use laptop or tablet as a touchpad (and keyboard) for a Windows PC

Disclosure: Some links on this page are monetized by the Skimlinks, Amazon, Rakuten Advertising, and eBay, affiliate programs, and Liliputing may earn a commission if you make a purchase after clicking on those links. All prices are subject to change, and this article only reflects the prices available at time of publication.

After decades of working with computers, I started to develop some wrist and arm pain a few year ago. So I switched from using whatever random mouse I could find for under $20 to using input devices meant to alleviate wrist pain. And for the past few years I've been happily switching back and forth between a Logitech MX Vertical mouse and a Kensington Expert Mouse Wireless Trackball.

And then last month my thumb decided it was tired of putting up with the abuse those devices were putting it through. At the advice of my doctor, I'm wearing a thumb brace nearly 24/7 for a few weeks before deciding whether additional intervention is required. But I'm also looking for ways to use my computer comfortable without using my left thumb at all. I've had my eye on the Ploopy TrackPad, but before spending even more money on input devices, I decided to use some gear I've got lying around the house to see if a trackpad is the answer. As it turns out, it's relatively easy to use a tablet or a spare laptop as touchpad for a Windows PC.

Fire Max 11 running Bluetooth Keyboard & Mouse

After spending the last few days trying out some different solutions, I've decided the two that best meet my needs are the Bluetooth Keyboard & Mouse app for Android and Deskflow for Windows, Mac, or Linux PCs.

Before I get into how I reached those conclusions though, here's a little info about how my office is set up.

My primary work setup consists of an Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 gaming laptop connected to a 29 inch ultrawide display and a Razer BlackWidow Tenkeyless V2 keyboard (plus a few other odds and ends).

While I could theoretically position the laptop below the monitor and just use the built-in keyboard and touchpad, I prefer using my mechanical keyboard for typing, and I like having a mouse/trackball/touchpad on the right side of the keyboard rather than below it. But putting the laptop next to the keyboard feels awkward, as I have to stretch my arm to reach the trackpad.

Using an Amazon Fire tablet (or other Android device) as a touchpad

So I decided to investigate whether it's possible to use a tablet as a touchpad. And it turns out there are several ways to do this. The first thing I tried was installing an Android app called Unified Remote, which has you install a server application on your PC, allowing you to connect your smartphone or tablet and use your mobile device as a remote control. The free version of the app has ads and a limited feature set, but one thing that you can do for free is use your Android device as a touchpad.

Overall this worked reasonably well, but before spending money on the paid version to eliminate ads, I decided to investigate other options. I tried some remote desktop apps like Chrome Remote Desktop, which worked reasonably well but felt like overkill. Eventually I discovered Bluetooth Keyboard & Mouse, an app that basically lets you use an Android device as a Bluetooth input device for a PC. There's no server software required because your phone or tablet is treated like a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard. So far this may be my favorite option.

Amazon Fire Max 11 running Bluetooth Keyboard & Mouse

While there is a Pro version that adds support for features like Multimedia keys, custom shortcuts, full screen mode, and AirMouse functionality, the free version does everything I need. You can use it for one or two-finger tapping and scrolling. There's a scroll area on one side of the touch area. And you can choose whether to show or hide the left, right, and middle mouse buttons, as well as whether they should be displayed at the top of the touchpad, the bottom, or both.

You can also tap a keyboard button at any time to open an on-screen keyboard that will let you enter text. This isn't something I was looking for from a mobile app, but it basically met my needs.

I spent most of the day yesterday using my Amazon Fire Max 11 tablet (*) as an oversized touchpad positioned next to my keyboard, and I'm pretty happy with this solution. I don't need to use my right thumb at all, but it's easy to tap, swipe, and scroll. Navigating most applications feels almost as smooth as it would if I were using a mouse.

But the real test is audio editing – the thing that's probably responsible for messing up my thumb in the first place. As a radio producer and podcast editor, I sometimes spend hours working in Reaper, Pro Tools, Izotope RX, and other audio editing software, usually with a mouse gripped firmly in one hand so I can make fine adjustments. I've never gotten the hang of using a trackball to edit audio, which is the main reason I haven't given up on mice altogether. And while a touchpad isn't quite as efficient for my workflow as a good mouse, it comes pretty close.

I only spent a few minutes using my Fire Tablet + Bluetooth mouse app to edit audio during my test yesterday, but the experience was surprisingly painless. I can see myself using a touchpad as a mouse alternative in the future… at least until the tendons in my thumb and wrist are healed.

But there are a few things I don't absolutely love about using a Fire tablet as a touchpad. The glass touchpad doesn't feel quite as responsive in Bluetooth mouse mode as a dedicated trackpad. I need to keep the tablet display running constantly. I need to put a mouse pad or some other item beneath the tablet to provide some friction or it won't stay still. And if I don't plug it in periodically, the battery might not make it through a full work day in this mode.

Amazon Fire Max 11 running Bluetooth Keyboard & Mouse

For what it's worth, I also tried installing the wireless touchpad apps on a Fire 7 tablet and Fire HD 8, but the Fire Max 11 screen felt better under my fingers and the tablet felt the most responsive… which isn't surprising, as it's by far the most expensive of the three.

I'm pretty sure I could just stick with this setup indefinitely. But now that I know I can use a touchpad in this position without hurting my thumb, I'm thinking about spending the extra money on a device that's made for this kind of functionality, like the Ploopy TrackPad. There are cheaper solutions available from Amazon and AliExpress, but most get pretty mixed reviews for performance, reliability, and build quality.

Before spending $100+ on another input device though, I decided to try one other thing first: repurposing an old Windows laptop as an input device for my Asus ROG Zephyrus G14. After all,  that would give me a taste of using a "real" touchpad, right?

Using a PC touchpad and keyboard to controller another PC

I've got an old HP Spectre x360 laptop from 2018 that's gathering dust. It's still a pretty slick thin and light convertible notebook. But with an Intel Core i5-8250U processor and 8GB of RAM, it's not one that I use very often these days.

It does have some features that make it ideal for use as an input device for another PC though. The trackpad may not be as large as my tablet (or the touchpad on my Asus laptop), but it does support most of the multitouch gestures I use on a regular basis. And since this is a convertible, I can fold the screen down so that it's not in my way while I'm looking at my monitor. That means I'd have to set aside my Razer keyboard during this test, but I figured it was worth trying anyway, as the HP has a pretty good keyboard (by ultraportable laptop standards).

So this morning I pulled out my old laptop and tried a few different applications that would let me use it with my ROG Zephyrus G14.

HP Spectre x360 (2018) running Deskflow

One option is to just install remote desktop or VNC software so that I can remote control one computer using the other. But this can get wonky when you're dealing with devices with different screen resolutions (my HP laptop has a 1920 x 1080 pixel display, while my Asus laptop has a 2560 x 1440 screen and my LG monitor has a 2560 x 1080 display). So what I really wanted was more of a virtual KVM solution that would let me just use the HP touchpad and keyboard to control the Asus laptop.

The first option I discovered is a free (for personal use) application called Input Director. This is a Windows-only client + server application that should do exactly what I need. But in practice it can be hit or miss when it comes to establishing a connection between devices.

There's also paid application called Synergy that's been around for years. But a lot of folks actually prefer older versions of the software, which doesn't work well with the latest versions of Windows, Mac, and Linux. Fortunately Synergy 1.0 was open source, and there are several forks that have picked up where Synergy left off.

For years the most popular was a free and open source application called Barrier, but its lead developer stopped working on it more than four years ago. Two popular forks are under active development though: Input Leap and Deskflow. Both appear to be relatively popular, but Deskflow looked easier to set up on a Windows computer, so that's the one I opted for.

Windows users do need to install Windows Visual++ Redistributable before they can use Deskflow, but once that's done it's extraordinarily easy to set up and install.

Just load the application on bother computers and click the buttons to indicate which PC is the server (you'll use this computer's mouse and keyboard) and which is the client (the PC that will be controlled).

Deskflow client mode

On the client PC, you'll enter the IP or hostname of the computer you want to connect to. That's easy to do because the Deskflow app shows the IP address of any computer it's running on.

Deskflow server mode

On the server PC you'll also see a Server Configuration button that lets you arrange the position of your computer (if the server is to the right of the client, for example, dragging the mouse from the left edge of your server computer will cause it to appear on the right side of the client).There are also a few other options for things like configuring hotkeys and enabling clipboard sharing between systems.

Overall this solution worked very well. Connections are established quickly and reliably. I'm not sure I'll keep using this setup long term though because, as I mentioned above, I prefer to have my mouse/touchpad input on the right side of the keyboard rather than below it. The HP touchpad is also a little smaller than I'd like, and it feels silly to not use my mechanical keyboard when I've got one.

But this experiment did help me confirm that generally a touchpad does feel a little more natural and responsive as an input device than a tablet functioning as a Bluetooth PC accessory.

Final Thoughts

One thing that neither option supported was two-finger horizontal scrolling though. This isn't a function I use very often, but it's something that's nice to have, and which doesn't work when using a Fire Max 11 with the Unified Remote or Bluetooth Keyboard & Mouse apps or the HP Spectre x360 with Deskflow.

That's at least part of the reason I'm still thinking about buying a dedicated touchpad.

Another is that it feels like a waste of electricity to run a tablet or laptop all day just so I can use it as an input device. Mice, Trackballs, and touchpads are low power devices – models with batteries usually have battery life measured in months or years. Laptop and tablet battery life, meanwhile, is typically measured in hours or days.

So is a DIY solution that repurposes existing hardware better or worse for the environment (and/or your wallet) than buying a whole new device? That's hard to say… it probably depends on how long you use them for. There's definitely more up-front cost (and carbon footprint) involved in buying new hardware. But in the long run, I can't help but feel like a PC + dedicated input device makes more sense than a PC + tablet or PC + PC solution.

Liliputing's primary sources of revenue are advertising and affiliate links (if you click the "Shop" button at the top of the page and buy something on Amazon, for example, we'll get a small commission).

But there are several ways you can support the site directly even if you're using an ad blocker* and hate online shopping.

Contribute to our Patreon campaign

or...

Contribute via PayPal * If you are using an ad blocker like uBlock Origin and seeing a pop-up message at the bottom of the screen, we have a guide that may help you disable it. Join 9,507 other subscribers