I just got the new Windows 10 operating system. As with all Windows operating systems I hate it. But it seems to work well. However it has a new feature that is supposed to work with pressure sensitive drawing tablets called “Windows Ink”. I guess the idea is that you can interface with Windows using a pen instead of a keyboard, but that kind of crap is for tablets which are mostly for entertainment, not for desktop machines which are work horses. However it can recognize handwriting and it does that rather well. The problem though is that it causes major problems with Photoshop. I have a few different versions of Photoshop including 7, CS, and now the Adobe Cloud Version which is called CC. In older Photoshop versions the Windows Ink doesn’t cause any problems whatsoever, but as usual everything that is better is actually worse, so the combination of Adobe Cloud’s Photoshop, Windows 7,8, or 10, and the Wacom drivers which I’m using for my Wacom Intuos 4 results in disaster. You’ll need a major workaround if you are using any Photoshop version before Photoshop CC 2020. That is what is covered in Part 1. If you have that version however just leave Use Windows Ink enabled in the Wacom Settings for that particular application and follow the rest of the instructions in Part 2 to get rid of the other problems.
In Photoshop the stroke controlled by Windows Ink is majorly delayed and the selection tool which I need to work quickly for my flatting is basically a weird acting and buggy tool. Now the instant fix for that is to use the Window’s Search Bar and type Wacom to pull up the Wacom settings and go to the Pen settings for the pen you are using and uncheck “Use Windows Ink”. Now that’s all fine and good if you don’t need Windows Ink or just want to disable it for a particular application, but guess what? Without Windows Ink enabled there you can’t use pressure sensitivity in later versions of Photoshop. Of course they work just fine in older versions, but not the new versions. Conspiracy is a terrible thing and when Adobe and Microsoft decided to use Windows Ink to control the pressure sensitivity in Photoshop they did something terrible. Either you use Windows Ink or you can’t use pressure sensitivity in Photoshop now.
However there is a workaround and they better keep this option or they need to fix the problems with pairing Windows Ink and Photoshop, but for now the solution is rather simple. We are going to disable Windows Ink for our pen as described above, but we are also going to use something called “WindowsTab” to get pressure sensitivity working again in Photoshop without Windows Ink being enabled for our pen. How? Simple…
Go to your “File Explorer” in Windows (the little folder Icon at the bottom of your screen near the center and slightly to the left). And in the “Quick Access” bar type “%appdata%” and press enter. This will take you to the application data file folders. Enter the “Adobe” folder and then the Adobe Photoshop folder (mine is called “Adobe Photoshop CC 2018” because that’s the version I have). Then enter the settings folder (mine is called “Adobe Photoshop CC 2018 Settings”).
The full path (with my username replaced with a generic one) in my computer looks like C:\Users\myusername\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CC 2018\Adobe Photoshop CC 2018 Settings
But it will depend on what version of Photoshop you have. Now here’s the trick…
In that directory create a new text file and name it “PSUserConfig.txt” and make sure you use correct capitalization. This will be our Photoshop User Configuration file. Now edit the file so that it has these two lines and nothing else…
# Use WinTab
UseSystemStylus 0
Make sure you use the pound sign and note that’s a zero, not a letter “O”.
Basically we’ve instructed Adobe Photoshop to use a generic system pen like a generic Windows Tablet for drawing might have.
Now save it and exit everything and shut down Photoshop if it was running and reopen it.
It’s fixed. :)
A big shout-out to Youtuber Alex Spieslechner who had a great video on this solution that included an explanation of how to find the correct directory. If my instructions aren’t clear check out his video and give him a like. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cCI7WB-ttw
Part 2: Now you’ll also want to get rid of those stupid ripples and circles that appear when you try to draw so…
Go to the search bar and type “Control Panel” and change the view type to large or small icons. Then go to “Pen and Touch” and click on “Press and Hold” and double click and uncheck the “Enable press and hold for right clicking”.
Now go to the search bar again and type “Pen Settings” and turn visual effects off.
More information at : http://embscomputerart.com/fixing-wacom-in-windows-10/
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