To get the most out of tap gestures, you can adjust the touchpad sensitivity using the dropdown menu. I keep it on “Medium,” though you can set it to whatever feels right for you.

Two-Finger Scroll and Zoom

How do you normally scroll or zoom on Windows? Most of us rely on the scroll bar, the mouse wheel, or keyboard shortcuts to navigate. But there’s an easier way—you can do it all with just two fingers on your touchpad. This makes browsing long webpages, zooming in on images, and navigating spreadsheets much more convenient.

To scroll, place two fingers on the touchpad and drag them up or down to move vertically, or side to side to scroll horizontally. For zooming, pinch two fingers together to zoom out, or spread them apart to zoom in. You can also change how scrolling works, such as making a two-finger swipe down scroll the page up or a swipe up scroll the page down.

To change the direction, head to Settings > Bluetooth and Devices > Touchpad, expand the “Scroll and Zoom” section, and pick your preferred option from the “Scrolling Direction” dropdown menu.

Three and Four-Finger Gestures

Beyond simple clicks and scrolling, Windows also supports advanced three-finger and four-finger swipes as well as tap gestures. These gestures work similarly but can be customized separately, allowing you to assign different functions for taps and swipes to make multitasking much easier.

For example, three- or four-finger taps can be set up to quickly open the search bar, access the notification center, play or pause media, or even act as a middle mouse button if your mouse doesn’t have one. You can assign two of these functions at a time, one for three-finger taps and one for four-finger taps.

Swipes, on the other hand, come with three predefined gesture sets:

• Switch apps and show desktop – Swipe up to open Task View, swipe down to minimize everything to the desktop, and swipe left or right to switch between open apps.
• Switch desktops and show desktop – Swipe up and down to access Task View and desktops, and swipe left or right to move between multiple desktops.
• Change audio and volume – Swipe up to increase volume, down to decrease it, and left or right to skip tracks.

You can enable two of these sets at once—one for three-finger swipes and one for four-finger swipes. To stop Windows from assigning any action to these gestures, select “Nothing”.

When you explore the three- and four-finger gesture dropdown menus, you’ll notice a “Custom” field. This allows you to assign actions beyond the default ones listed for three- and four-finger taps and swipes. To configure these gestures, go to Settings > Bluetooth and Devices > Touchpad, and head to the “Advanced Gestures” menu under Related Settings.

In that menu, you’ll find dropdowns for tap, swipe up, down, left, and right—both for three- and four-finger gestures. Once you pick an action here, the gesture’s dropdown will automatically switch to the “Custom” field, and your chosen action will be applied. This way, you’re not limited to just the built-in defaults.

Additional tap gestures include things like using the mouse back or forward button, or assigning a custom shortcut. For swipes, you can do even more—such as snapping windows left or right, maximizing or minimizing apps, muting audio or video, hiding everything, navigating backward or forward, or using custom shortcuts.

Focus on the actions you use most often and map them to these gestures. Experiment with different setups until you find the configuration that streamlines your workflow the most.

Windows touchpad gestures are often overlooked, but once you start using them, they can transform how you navigate your laptop. By saving those extra seconds spent reaching for a mouse or using keyboard shortcuts, you’ll notice tasks getting done much faster. Customize them to your liking, and you’ll see just how much time and effort they save.