Windows 8 touch tools

Hiya there, I was just wondering if the touch pointer is available in Windows 8 like Vista and 7? Also, is there anyway re-enable the touch flicks system and to get the touch flicks icon to show in the notification area again?

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Anas Najjar(2) replied on

I don't have a solution for the touch pointer... yet. But for the finger touch flicks I do :)

finger touch flicks on Win8 are gone :(
Windows 8 can perform only pen flicks, and I don’t think this is going to change. The decision to remove finger touch flicks is utterly stupid and must have been made by someone who never used them on Windows 7. Since we are only a small number of users (who used the touch features on Windows 7) most Windows 8 users will not even know what they are missing.

I tried many things to solve the issue (registry edits, replacing files from Win7) and none of them worked. But I don’t give up easily, so after hours of searching online I found this free app:
http://www.strokesplus.com/files/StrokesPlus_2.3.8_x64.zip

http://www.strokesplus.com/files/StrokesPlus_2.3.8_x86.zip
Currently, the website is down returning (500 - Internal server error), but the download link is working (if not, you can use my link). This app is made for adding gestures to mouse, and it works like a charm with Win8 and touch screens. You can make and draw as much gestures as you wish, and assign the appropriate actions for them. It’s flexible, small, and extremely functional.

The downside is that gestures should be made with a mouse right-click, then draw. This requires a bit extra time waiting for the press-and-hold to activate the right click, in contrast to the Win7 fast flicks. So you better change your press-and-hold settings to the shortest time possible:
Control Panel\Pen and Touch\Press and hold settings
And slide the “Speed” slider to the left.

However, there’s an upside to this app over the traditional flicks, that it’s not limited to only 8 flicks. You can make as much as you want adding great functionality.

After spending some time with the app, I configured it to perform similar flicks to Win7 (backward, forward, copy, paste, etc.) and added 8 more gestures (I didn't like much the preinstalled gestures). Also, more importantly, I changed the settings to suit touch screens best and to avoid interfering with the touchpad. On my laptop, the result is great. To save you some time I uploaded my file. You just download and extract the files, and then try my customized settings. I also added instructions for making the program auto-start with Windows with administrative privileges. My file with the customized settings:
x64 version: http://sdrv.ms/Qej9wO

x86 version: http://sdrv.ms/T23Y86

Try it, and report your feedback of your experience with it.