How to Turn On or off Scroll Inactive Windows in Windows 11

Turn On or Off Scroll Inactive Windows in Settings

The Settings app is the easiest way to change this. Follow these steps to reach your mouse preferences.

1. Press Win+I on your keyboard to open Settings. You should see the Settings⚙️ window with a list of categories on the left.
2. Click Bluetooth🔷 & devices on the left side. The device options appear on the right.
3. Click Mouse on the right side. The page with your pointer and scrolling options opens.

This page controls how your mouse behaves. The scroll setting on it lets you scroll background windows and documents just by hovering over them, even when the window isn’t active or selected.

4. Find the option Scroll inactive windows when hovering over them. It sits near the other scrolling options on the Mouse page.
5. Set the toggle to On or Off, depending on what you want. On is the default.
6. Close Settings when you’re done. The change applies straight away in Settings, so you don’t need to restart or sign out.

To test it, open two windows side by side, rest the pointer over the one in the background and turn the mouse wheel. With the setting on, the background window scrolls. With it off, you have to click the window first. A few apps handle scrolling in their own way, so they may not respond the same as standard windows do.

Option Two

Turn On or Off Scroll Inactive Windows Using Command Line

1. Open Windows Terminal. You can right-click the Start button⊞ and pick it from the menu, or search for it in Start.
2. Select either Windows PowerShell or Command Prompt. Use the down arrow next to the plus tab to pick one, or just use the tab that opens by default if it’s the one you want.
3. Copy and paste one of the commands below and press Enter. Use the first to turn the feature on and the second to turn it off.

To Turn On:

Make the change in Registry Editor:

1. Open Registry Editor: press Win+R, type regedit, and press Enter. Select Yes if User Account Control asks.
2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop — paste the path into the address bar at the top of Registry Editor and press Enter.
3. If there is no Desktop key, right-click Control Panel🎛️ in the left pane, select New › Key, name it Desktop, and select it. Create any other missing key in the path the same way.
4. Right-click an empty area of the right pane, select New › DWORD (32-bit) Value, and name it MouseWheelRouting. If MouseWheelRouting is already there, skip this step.
5. Double-click MouseWheelRouting, set Base to Decimal, type 2 in Value data, and select OK.

To Turn Off:

Make the change in Registry Editor:

1. Open Registry Editor: press Win+R, type regedit, and press Enter. Select Yes if User Account Control asks.
2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop — paste the path into the address bar at the top of Registry Editor and press Enter.
3. If there is no Desktop key, right-click Control Panel🎛️ in the left pane, select New › Key, name it Desktop, and select it. Create any other missing key in the path the same way.
4. Right-click an empty area of the right pane, select New › DWORD (32-bit) Value, and name it MouseWheelRouting. If MouseWheelRouting is already there, skip this step.
5. Double-click MouseWheelRouting, set Base to Decimal, type 0 in Value data, and select OK.

The change takes effect right away in Settings, though the registry change may need you to sign out and back in before apps pick it up. To check it, open Settings › Bluetooth & devices › Mouse and look at the Scroll inactive windows when hovering over them toggle. If the toggle still shows the old state, close Settings and open it again. To undo a change, run the other command.

Summary

Now you know both ways to control scrolling in inactive windows: the toggle in Settings and the commands in Windows Terminal. Whichever you use, you can switch back at any time, which makes it easy to try the setting and see if it suits how you work with multiple open apps.