Here's a complete tutorial on how you can disable Touch Bar on 2016 MacBook Pro in a few easy steps.

Touch Bar May Pose a 'Cheating' Risk During Exams, Disabling it is the Way to Go

News surfaced a few days back that students with the latest 2016 MacBook Pro will have to disable the Touch Bar before they can enter the 'Bar Examination Site.' While it was covered briefly how one can disable the Touch Bar, but in today's guide we will jump into more detail coupled with screenshots on how to disable said feature.

Tutorial

This tutorial is applicable to users with the 2016 MacBook Pro with Touch Bar. If you have a model that doesn't have Apple's new touch-screen strip, then you have nothing to worry about at all.

Also, disabling the Touch Bar doesn't mean that the strip will plungeinto complete darkness. Instead, once it is disabled, you will see a normal set of controlkeys regardless of which app you are in. These include the volume buttons, brightness and so on.

1. First and foremost, open the System Preferences on your MacBook Pro. You can do so either from Launchpad, Dock or by clicking the Apple icon in the menu bar.

2. Once here, click on the entry labelled Keyboard.

3. You will now see an option with a drop-down next to it called: Touch Bar shows. Click on it to reveal a bunch of other options.

4. Select the one that says Expanded Control Strip and then close System Preferences.

That's it, you have now disabled the extended functionality of the Touch Bar. From here on in, regardless of which app you are in, the Touch Bar will only show the controlkeys, nothing else.

Wrap Up

Only disable the Touch Bar whenever the need arises. I would highly recommend keeping it on at all times since it extends the functionality of the app you are using. For instance, in Photos app, you can scrub through your images with a simple swipe on the Touch Bar. In Final Cut Pro, you can breeze through your timeline with utmost ease. The list goes on for a lot of third-party apps as well.