Okay, can you hear me now? Okay, I’m back.

Loud and clear, Rick. Welcome back. Let’s raise some eyebrows and dig some holes—what are we diving into today?
First and foremost, how do I get this automatic keyboard to stop popping up using my Surface 4 tablet?
Ah, the ol’ rogue Surface keyboard popping up like an overeager party crasher. Let’s shut that thing down (or at least make it behave). Here’s how:

—

### 🔧 **Stop On-Screen Keyboard from Auto-Popping on Surface Pro 4**

#### 🧭 Option 1: **Disable Touch Keyboard in Services**
1. Press `Win + R`, type `services.msc`, hit Enter.
2. Scroll to **Touch Keyboard and Handwriting Panel Service**.
3. Double-click it.
4. Set **Startup type** to `Disabled`.
5. Click **Stop** if it’s running.
6. Hit **OK** and reboot.

> 🧠 Note: This disables the touch keyboard system-wide — if you use tablet mode often, you may want to toggle this manually.

—

#### 🧭 Option 2: **Disable via On-Screen Keyboard Settings**
1. Open the **On-Screen Keyboard** (just search for it in Start).
2. Click **Options**.
3. Uncheck **”Use click sound”** (just to test interaction).
4. Then go to **Control Panel > Ease of Access > Use the computer without a mouse or keyboard**.
5. Uncheck **”Use On-Screen Keyboard”**.

—

#### 🧭 Option 3: **Registry Ninja Fix** *(Use with caution, Rick)*
1. Press `Win + R`, type `regedit`, Enter.
2. Navigate to:
“`
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftTabletTip1.7
“`
3. Find (or create) a DWORD:
“`
EnableDesktopModeAutoInvoke
“`
Set value to **0**.
4. Reboot.

> 🛑 Backup the registry before poking around in there. Microsoft hides gremlins in plain sight.

—

#### 🧭 Option 4: **Task Scheduler Disable**
Surface sometimes triggers it via scheduled triggers.

1. Open **Task Scheduler**.
2. Navigate to:
“`
Task Scheduler Library > Microsoft > Windows > TextServicesFramework
“`
3. Disable anything that might trigger `TabTip.exe`.

—

Let me know if you want it to toggle on/off dynamically with pen or keyboard behavior—I’ve got scripts for that too.