Maybe they were longing for the good old days of "natural interfaces", when people held a stick and dab in ink and motion it across paper to stain it with visual patterns. Perhaps that was what drove Microsoft to believe everybody owned a Tablet PC for sure, and to provide IdeaCom Technology Inc. - Input - IdeaCom HID Touch Screen (PS/2) and an option in the latest round of Windows Update.
Silly me, the ever-eager IT professional to stay in touch with the latest updates, checked the box and proceeded with the downloads. Shutdown, pack up, and rode home. Once in the house, I boot the newly-patched OS only to find a visual keyboard on my logon screen. I write "only", because my pointer stick and touchpad are both disabled. Fortunately, I am a keyboard commando, and managed to logon and navigate Windows using keyboard alone. A quick look around at Windows Update history to verify just exactly what was that thing I installed. The best thing about it, there is no uninstall option.
In the end, I searched back out the old Dell drivers for the touchpad and pointer stick, and got it reinstalled. Thankfully, my laptop began to realise it is in fact not a Tablet PC, and restored functionality to the pointer devices after swallowing the red pill.
Lesson: even though it does not cash any cash, do not greedily pick all Windows Update options without double checking.