Weird button on laptop keyboards

[Orbit]

So my friend showed me this picture today:

And it got me thinking, what is that red button doing there and what is it's purpose? Somebody that knows?

[Schuba]

It can be used in place of the track pad I believe. It has the ability to click and move the cursor.

[Orbit]

It can be used in place of the track pad I believe. It has the ability to click and move the cursor.

Huh. Never seen that before

[Schuba]

Huh. Never seen that before

It's useless. It's ridiculously out of place for any practical use anyway.

[Chanchanbimy]

It's actually a joystick for the mouse. Used to use it more than that trackpad, felt more satisfying

[[MPGH]Ahl]

It's basically another trackpad mouse thingy.

Only old laptops have it, and generally by IBM.

[Cthulhu]

The purpose of the button is to self-destruct if by any means necessary you get the swat raiding your house and you need to get rid of evidence quickly.
It's actually just a joystick, instead of moving your right arm to move the mouse, you can just use the joystick. A cool thing you can do with it is program it as a left/right click.

[Silent]

It's to control your mouse cursor.
And I know because it was on one of my old teachers computers and I just had to see what it did.

[something1234567]

That joystick was used during the early 1999's and early 2000's by various companies like ThinkPad, Lenovo and more. Those were before they used actual trackpads (lack of reliability and stability as well as fighting various patents). After that period, many manufacturers simply kept the joystick on the keyboard cause hey, if its not broke, don't fix it.

[Chanchanbimy]

The purpose of the button is to self-destruct if by any means necessary you get the swat raiding your house and you need to get rid of evidence quickly.
It's actually just a joystick, instead of moving your right arm to move the mouse, you can just use the joystick. A cool thing you can do with it is program it as a left/right click.

It's more for when you get a sketchy deal online but it may be too good to be true and you get the FBI at your doorstep.

[Snake]

Simply an other cursor. Imagine you type and you quickly have to swipe, that's what.

[Freeze]

That is used to move the cursor.

[ToastyGameZ43]

kinda like a mouse it controls the cursor of the mouse i got one to but its black

[Hentai]

Simply a joystick for mouse, I have tried using it but it moves around without control, and it is quite sensitive.

[Crayotic]

It's a mouse