How to Turn On or Off Scroll Inactive Windows when Hovering in Windows 11

monitor gbc
monitor gbc

This article describes steps to enable or disable “Scroll inactive windows when hovering over them” in Windows 11.

Windows has a built-in feature that will let you scroll inactive windows simply by hovering over them using your mouse pointer without your active window losing focus.

This can come in handy when you don’t want to lose your active window on the screen but also want to view data on background windows.

Below is how to enable or disable that feature in Windows 11.

Scroll inactive windows when hovering over them in Windows 11

As described above, Windows has a built-in feature that will let you scroll inactive windows simply by hovering over them using your mouse pointer without your active window losing focus.

Here’s how to turn it on or off.

First, open the Windows Settings app.

You can do that by clicking on the Start menu and selecting Settings. Alternatively, use the keyboard shortcut (Windows key + I) to launch the Settings app.

windows 11 new settings button
windows 11 new settings button

When the Settings app opens, click the Bluetooth & devices button on the left.

windows 11 bluetooth and devices
Windows 11 Bluetooth and devices

On the right, select the Mouse tile to expand.

windows mouse tile
Windows mouse tile

On the Bluetooth & devices -> Mouse settings pane, under the Scrolling section, select the tile that reads “Scroll inactive windows when hovering over them.”

Toggle the button to the On position to enable. To disable it, toggle the button back to the Off position.

windows scroll inactive windows when hovering over them tile
windows scroll inactive windows when hovering over them tile

Close the Settings app.

Change inactive scroll windows when hovering over them via the Registry Editor.

Another way to change this setting is to use the Windows Registry app.

Open the Windows Registry, and navigate to the folder key path as listed below.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop

If you don’t see the Desktop folder key, right-click on the Control Panel parent key, then create the subkey (Desktop) folder.

windows scroll inactive windows when hovering over them registry
windows scroll inactive windows when hovering over the registry

Right-click on the Desktop folder key’s right pane and select New -> DWORD (32-bit) Value. Type a new key named MouseWheelRouting.

Double-click the new value name (MouseWheelRouting) and enter the Value data of 2 to enable inactive scrolling windows when hovering over them.

Value data of 0 will disable scrolling active windows when hovering over them.

windows scroll inactive windows when hovering over them registry value data
Windows scroll inactive windows when hovering over them registry value data.

That should do it! Restart your computer to apply your changes.

Conclusion:

This post showed you how to enable or disable “Scroll inactive windows when hovering over them” in Windows 11. Please use the comment form below if you find any errors above or have something to add.

Posted by
Richard W

I love computers; maybe way too much. What I learned I try to share at geekrewind.com.

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