The genuine ETDCtrl.exe file is a software component of ELAN Smart-Pad by ELAN Microelectronics. ELAN Smart-Pad is a touchpad usually found on laptops. ETDCtrl.exe runs the control center, a configuration screen that provides options to modify settings for the ELAN Smart-Pad. This is not an essential Windows process and can be disabled if known to create problems. ELAN Smart-Pad is an input device used for finger tracking. This device is often sold to original equipment manufacturers such as Samsung. The trackpad features two and three finger gestures as well as intuitive scrolling, zooming in and out, rotation, magnification, window-switching, tapping, and more. ELAN Smart-Pad supports the Windows platform. The ELAN Microelectronics Corporation is a Taiwanese company that designs microchips and integrated circuitry. ELAN specializes in the development of Smart Human-Machine Interface applications and is heavily invested in the research of Capacitive Touchpad. The company was founded in 1994 and is currently headquartered in Hsinchu Science Park, Taipei, Taiwan and owns offices in the US, Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Hong Kong.
ETDCtrl stands for Elan Trackpad Device Control Center
The .exe extension on a filename indicates an executable file. Executable files may in some cases harm your computer. Therefore, please read below to decide for yourself whether the ETDCtrl.exe on your computer is a Trojan that you should remove, or whether it is a file belonging to the Windows operating system or to a trusted application.
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Description: ETDCtrl.exe is not essential for the Windows OS and causes relatively few problems. The file ETDCtrl.exe is located in a subfolder of "C:\Program Files" (e.g. C:\Program Files\Elantech\).
Known file sizes on Windows 10/11/7 are 3,242,696 bytes (11% of all occurrences), 1,891,720 bytes and 158 more variants.
ETDCtrl.exe is not a Windows system file. The file is certified by a trustworthy company. ETDCtrl.exe is a Microsoft signed file. It is a Verisign signed file. The program has no visible window.
ETDCtrl.exe is able to record keyboard and mouse inputs and monitor applications.
Therefore the technical security rating is 16% dangerous; however you should also read the user reviews.
Uninstalling this variant:
In the event of any problems with ETDCtrl.exe, you can also uninstall the associated program (Start > Control Panel > Uninstall a Program > ETDWare PS/2-x86 7.0.3.8 WHQL 03Sep08 or ETDWare PS/2-x86 7.0.5.9_WHQL).
If ETDCtrl.exe is located in a subfolder of the user's profile folder, the security rating is 85% dangerous. The file size is 787,440 bytes (20% of all occurrences), 791,552 bytes, 783,312 bytes, 812,024 bytes or 779,232 bytes.
The file is not a Windows core file. There is no information about the author of the file. The program has no visible window.
If ETDCtrl.exe is located in the Windows folder for temporary files, the security rating is 92% dangerous. The file size is 209,408 bytes.
The software is loaded during the Windows boot process (see Registry key: MACHINE\Run, TaskScheduler, Run).
The program has no visible window. The process uses ports to connect to or from a LAN or the Internet. It is not a Windows system file.
ETDCtrl.exe appears to be a compressed file.
Important: Some malware camouflages itself as ETDCtrl.exe, particularly when located in the C:\Windows or C:\Windows\System32 folder, for example Gen:Variant.Barys.55312 (detected by BitDefender), and Gen:Variant.Barys.55312 (detected by F-Secure). Therefore, you should check the ETDCtrl.exe process on your PC to see if it is a threat. We recommend Security Task Manager for verifying your computer's security. This was one of the Top Download Picks of The Washington Post and PC World.
Score
User Comments
Program from Elan Microelectronic corp used for touchpad driver
ELAN Smart Pad - Touchpad driver Anonymous
Touchpad funktioniert auch ohne, aber Multitouch nicht! John Doe
ESSENTIAL Samsung laptops ELAN trackpad driver (series 5 and series 9) Joe Average
Killing the process did not affect the toucpad function
Program from Elan Microelectronic corp used for touchpad driver. High processor time for no appearant reason
Essential comes on laptops for scrolling zooming and rotating pictures vodkaFather (further information)
Needed for my Samsung Laptop (Series 7) For Multitouch.
touchpad treiber sophie
uses a lot of cpu just to run the trackpad. The trackpad runs without it but not as well - tracking speed and scrolling is harder to nail down correctly without the ELAN software.
Samsung Laptop (Series 7) For Multitouch. Philipp
It takes up too much valuable CPU usage, when i uninstalled it, my computer, the CPU usage went all the way down to less then 10%, so it takes up some CPU that is not being used and sometimes this program can be helpful for some reasons that other people think so... Shane
on inspiron 15 (7548), the elan smartpad drivers come with this. thing is, if you disable the driver (Elan Smart Pad), no effect on touchpad. touchscreen, however, stops working. what this program is supposed to do is provide functionality for touchpads. with my laptop, however, the drivers are all messed up. Then again, everyone seems upset with this model of laptop. Issues everywhere. Annoyed With Dell
On MSI laptops, it also handles several keyboard shortcuts, suxh as luminosity and screen change. Samuel
the description states it is able to record keyboard imput, which suggests its a key logger. Earl
It's part of the driver that allows advanced Touchpad gestures on various laptops (Including Lenovo ThinkPads, Samsungs, etc.) These include 2 finger/3 finger swipes, scrolling, and other touchpad gestures. Basic touchpad functions without it. IE Technically not required. Yaki Forto
Show all user comments
Summary: Average user rating of ETDCtrl.exe:
based on 34 votes with 17 user comments.
20 users think ETDCtrl.exe is essential for Windows or an installed application.
2 users think it's probably harmless.
8 users think it's neither essential nor dangerous.
2 users suspect danger.
2 users think ETDCtrl.exe is dangerous and recommend removing it.
2 users don't grade ETDCtrl.exe ("not sure about it").
Best practices for resolving ETDCtrl issues
A clean and tidy computer is the key requirement for avoiding problems with ETDCtrl. This means running a scan for malware, cleaning your hard drive using 1cleanmgr and 2sfc /scannow, 3uninstalling programs that you no longer need, checking for Autostart programs (using 4msconfig) and enabling Windows' 5Automatic Update. Always remember to perform periodic backups, or at least to set restore points.
Should you experience an actual problem, try to recall the last thing you did, or the last thing you installed before the problem appeared for the first time. Use the 6resmon command to identify the processes that are causing your problem. Even for serious problems, rather than reinstalling Windows, you are better off repairing of your installation or executing the 7DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth command. This allows you to repair the operating system without losing data.
To get your computer running as fast as it did on day one, you can 8reset your PC. Your personal files will remain intact, but any programs you installed will need to be reinstalled.
To help you analyze the ETDCtrl.exe process on your computer, the following programs have proven to be helpful: ASecurity Task Manager displays all running Windows tasks, including embedded hidden processes, such as keyboard and browser monitoring or Autostart entries. A unique security risk rating indicates the likelihood of the process being potential spyware, malware or a Trojan. A good Bantivirus software detects and removes sleeping spyware, adware, Trojans, keyloggers, malware and trackers from your hard drive.
Score
User Comments
Anonymous
John Doe
Joe Average
vodkaFather (further information)
sophie
Philipp
Shane
Tjeerd Geerts (further information)
Annoyed With Dell
Samuel
Earl
Yaki Forto
Summary: Average user rating of ETDCtrl.exe: based on 34 votes with 17 user comments. 20 users think ETDCtrl.exe is essential for Windows or an installed application. 2 users think it's probably harmless. 8 users think it's neither essential nor dangerous. 2 users suspect danger. 2 users think ETDCtrl.exe is dangerous and recommend removing it. 2 users don't grade ETDCtrl.exe ("not sure about it").