Part 15: Windows XP vs. Vista: Pen and Input Devices – Tablet PC Settings

Pen and Input Devices along with Tablet PC Settings go hand-and-hand for touch-screen, touch-pads and tablet-screen monitors (typically used for portable laptop devices). Both features are natively supported by Windows Vista and are not installed by default in Windows XP (usually a third-party driver).

023: Pen and Input Devices
This Control Panel Applet configures the details whenever you tap your finger, or pen tool on-screen (i.e. Single-Tap does an action to Single-Click, Double-Tap does Double-Click actions, etc.). I really don’t see why this feature is installed by default – if a user is operating on a computer without a Pen tool, or touch-screen input devices all I see is this adds more clutter to the Control Panel.

Windows Vista - Pen and Input Devices - Pen Options

Windows Vista - Pen and Input Devices - Pointer Options

Windows Vista - Pen and Input Devices - Flicks

024: Tablet PC Settings
These settings are only used in Tablet PC’s and are a complete waste of memory for ordinary users on desktop or tower-based computers. The Tablet PC Settings Control Panel Applet simply allows further tweaking for use with a typical Pen Tool when Handwriting information on the screen or change the orientation of the screen from landscape (horizontal) to portrait (vertical).

Windows Vista - Tablet PC Settings - General