A small Windows tray app, written in Rust, that enables and disables a device by its Device Instance Path. Click the tray icon to toggle the device; the icon shows whether it's currently enabled.
Well I purchased a new Dell XPS 15 Laptop. and at the time to get the OLED screen you had to get a touch screen. I had no real need for the touch screen do I did a little digging and found that I could disable it by entering the command:
pnputil /disable-device "HID\ELAN2D25&COL01\5&2B77D6B&0&0000"
and re-enable it with:
pnputil /enable-device "HID\ELAN2D25&COL01\5&2B77D6B&0&0000"
For a while I had two shortcuts that ran batch scripts as Administrator (since you need admin access to enable or disable devices).
Then I got a little tired of that and made this really simple application that runs the above two commands based on the state of an icon in the Window Notification bar.
Job done...
Version 2 is a rewrite in Rust (it was C#/WinForms up to 1.0.0.13). It no longer needs .NET at all: the whole app is one ~12 MB exe.
Build the installer in one step with Inno Setup installed:
./make-installer.ps1This builds the exe with Cargo and compiles the installer. The two steps can
also be run individually — ./build.ps1 to build, then
ISCC.exe installer\DontTouchMeBro.iss to compile.
Every push and pull request is also built by GitHub Actions, which uploads the exe and the installer as a build artifact.
The resulting installer\Output\DontTouchMeBro-Setup-*.exe installs for all
users into C:\Program Files\DontTouchMeBro and needs Administrator to
install. It adds an all-users Start Menu shortcut.
Why per-machine: the app always runs as Administrator (it needs that to toggle devices). If its exe lived in a folder your normal, non-elevated account can write to, any program running as you could replace it and have the replacement run as admin the next time you start it. Program Files is only writable by administrators, so that isn't possible.
The installer has a Start automatically when I sign in option (checked by
default). It creates a Scheduled Task named DontTouchMeBro that starts the
app when you sign in, with highest privileges, so there is no UAC prompt at
each sign-in. (The usual Run registry key can't be used: Windows silently
skips apps that require Administrator there.)
The task:
- runs only for the account that approved the installer's UAC prompt (see Known limitations), only when that account signs in interactively;
- has no run-time limit and isn't blocked or stopped on battery power (the Task Scheduler defaults would otherwise kill the tray app after 72 hours);
- is removed when you uninstall, or when you re-run the installer with the option unchecked.
You can see or disable it in Task Scheduler (taskschd.msc, top-level
library), or from an elevated prompt:
schtasks /Query /TN DontTouchMeBro / schtasks /Delete /TN DontTouchMeBro /F.
Earlier installers put the app in %LocalAppData%\Programs\DontTouchMeBro for
the current user only. When the new installer finds that copy (in the profile
of the account running setup) it offers to remove it first; this is
recommended. Your device setting in %APPDATA%\DontTouchMeBro\device-id.txt
is not touched.
If the old copy wasn't found (see below) or you chose to keep it, remove it
yourself from Settings > Apps > Installed apps (it's the entry installed
under your user, not the Program Files one), or run
%LocalAppData%\Programs\DontTouchMeBro\unins000.exe.
Uninstall from Settings > Apps. The uninstaller stops the app if it's
running, deletes the sign-in task, and removes the program files. Your
%APPDATA%\DontTouchMeBro config folder is left in place.
These apply when you sign in as a standard (non-admin) user and someone types an administrator's credentials into the UAC prompt ("over-the-shoulder" elevation). The app and the installer then run as that administrator account, not as you:
- Config location: the app's config goes to the administrator's
%APPDATA%\DontTouchMeBro\device-id.txt, not yours. - Start at sign-in: the task is created for the administrator account (it starts when they sign in), not for you. This is unavoidable: a standard account's "highest privileges" are still non-admin, so a task can never start this app elevated for it. Standard users start the app from the Start Menu and approve the UAC prompt each time.
- Upgrade cleanup: the installer looks for an old per-user copy in the administrator's profile, so your own old copy isn't found; remove it manually as described above.
If your everyday account is an administrator (the normal case, where UAC just asks you to click Yes), none of this applies.
The easiest way is to launch the app, right-click the tray icon and choose
Configure. It lists your HID devices by product name (for example
"Keychron Q6 HE"), with what each one is in the Type column: a touch
screen is "Touch screen", a pen "Pen". Hover a row to see the name Windows
uses and the Device Instance Path. Tick Show all device classes to pick
any other kind of device. Devices Windows won't let you
disable (some virtual and system devices) aren't listed, since the app could
never turn them off. Click a row, then OK. Your
choice is saved to %APPDATA%\DontTouchMeBro\device-id.txt, and the tray
picks it up straight away.
You can also create that file yourself: put your specific Device Instance Path
in %APPDATA%\DontTouchMeBro\device-id.txt. (Older versions kept this file next
to the executable; on first run the app migrates it to the new location
automatically.)
Errors (for example a device that refused to toggle) are written to
%APPDATA%\DontTouchMeBro\DontTouchMeBro.log. If the app ever crashes it
also writes fatal_error.log there. Right-click the tray icon and choose
Reveal in File Explorer to open that folder.
There are a few ways to do this but the simplest seems to be:
- Hit Ctrl + X to and Choose
Device Manager - Find the device you are looking for, if it's a Touch Screen try in the Human Interface Devices
- Once you have found the device go it it's properties.
- Once in the properties, do to the Details Tab and under the Property choose Device instance path:
- In the value Section, copy this text and use it for the instanceID variable.
Well in order for an application to make changes to any devices on the computer it needs to be an administrator. So I had a choice, make the application require administrator access to run, or make each press of the button require admin access, the former seemed less annoying to me.
Tick Start automatically when I sign in in the installer (it's on by default). It sets up a Scheduled Task that starts the app elevated at sign-in without a prompt; see Start automatically when I sign in above. If you run the exe without the installer, you can create a similar task yourself in Task Scheduler ("Run with highest privileges", trigger "At log on", and clear "Stop the task if it runs longer than").
In a short, No; never blindly trust someone you don't know. I tried to do the right thing but you trust you.
You need Rust (stable, MSVC toolchain) and the Windows SDK that comes with the Visual Studio C++ build tools.
cargo build # debug build: target\debug\DontTouchMeBro.exe
cargo test # unit tests + read-only device enumeration tests
cargo clippy --all-targets -- -D warnings
.\build.ps1 # release build copied to dist\win-x64
.\make-installer.ps1 # release build + Inno Setup installerThe exe asks for Administrator when it starts (enabling and disabling devices
needs it). To try the UI without the UAC prompt, build with
$env:DTMB_AS_INVOKER = "1"; cargo build. That build can list devices and
open the Configure window, but toggling a device fails with "Access is
denied". Don't ship it.
How it fits together:
| File | What it does |
|---|---|
src/tray.rs |
The tray process: hidden window, notification icon, menu, balloons, re-adding the icon when Explorer restarts. |
src/configure.rs |
The Configure window (egui). Runs as DontTouchMeBro.exe --configure, started by the tray. |
src/device.rs |
Device access through SetupAPI / Configuration Manager (the same APIs as Device Manager and pnputil). |
src/toggle.rs |
What a click does, kept separate from Windows so it can be unit tested. |
src/config.rs |
Reading and writing device-id.txt. |
build.rs + app.manifest |
Embeds the manifest (Administrator, DPI awareness), icons and version info. |