disable pointing under touchpad button area

[PieterPost]

On my new notebook the touchpad fully extends into the area which i would use as buttons on the bottom. This means that unless I use the touchpad with 1 finger only, clicking results in moved cursor and consequently misclicks. In previous machines I either had separate buttons or would be able to reduce the pointing area of the touchpad through the synaptics software.

On this laptop I only can configure windows precision touchpad. 

Is there a way to reduce or disable this behavior?

[Bayzter]

Have you ever found a solution to this problem?

[macscotia]

I had an old hp 6460b laptop and found the touchpad got in the way so I disabled it.  I did this by going into device manager, input devices, and finding the touchpad and disabling it.  Note, I already had a usb mouse connected.  Now, when I power on the laptop,  I get a beep and then a yellow led appears in the touchpad indicating that it has been disabled.  I then operate the laptop using the keyboard and an external mouse. 

[PieterPost]

@Mascotia: not relevant, the new laptops are equipped with a precision touchpad, completely different. no light. Plus my question is: how do i get the touchpad to behave usable, not to disable it altogether.

[PieterPost]

Unfortunately not.