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Asked: 2026-05-20T01:13:38+00:00

I’m starting my first project that runs on a 7 inch touch screen running

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I’m starting my first project that runs on a 7 inch touch screen running Windows CE 6.0 (and NETCF 3.5).

The touch screen doesn’t respond to touch too well when I use my finger. The only way for me to navigate around is by using a stylus (or similar).

Since I’ve never worked with Windows CE or a resistive touch screen, I’m not sure if I should expect to be able to use my finger or if the stylus method is, essentially, the only way to effectively navigate around. – or, maybe, I have a touch screen that simply isn’t that good.

If you have experience with WinCE running on a touch screen, do you find that a stylus is the only way to go?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    A resistive touchscreen can certainly provide feedback for a finger – I’ve even configured them for hands-in-gloves. It sounds like the touchscreen driver is tossing out the data samples it’s getting from the panel and the key for you is going to be to figure out why.

    In my experience there are really two primary reasons for your samples to be ignored.

    1. The driver has been configured to too tight of a tolerance.
      Sensitivity is often a configurable item. Maybe through recompile of the OS, maybe through the registry – depends on how your OEM implemented it. Check with the OEM and see if you can adjust it.
    2. The panel has too much noise, causing your samples to get tossed
      This one is easy to check. Drag a selection rectangle on the desktop with a stylus and hold the end point down (don’t lift the stylus). Is it steady, or does it “wiggle” a lot at the final point? If so, you have noise. Grounding the panel usually helps, but it could be a hardware issue. I’ve done rolling-average work in touchpanel drivers to help smooth this out, but you then have to fight hysteresis.

    Be aware that larger touchscreens have different resistivity properties than smaller ones, so if you just swapped panels from small to large, it’s quite possible that the output range difference of the panels is not workable with the current driver settings. Again, some OEMs provide the ability to adjust these settings.

    So can it work with a finger? Well there’s nothing in the physical theory that would prevent using a finger. In fact if you can’t use a finger, there’s something wrong. Will it work in reality? Check with your OEM.

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