Submission details
Inactive Window Scrolling
Windows Vista, 7 M3 does not allow users to scroll inactive windows by HIDs.
If the cursor is on an inactive window, "scroll messages" passed to the hovered window so it will allow scrolling without activating the window.
This enhance usability while working with multiple windows.
Medium
High
Not fixed
Discussion (13 comments)
Cuppa, I don't see how that changes anything. As it stands, the mouse has to be within the window frame to scroll through the content anyways. So you'll never "accidentally" scroll one window instead of another.
@DavidTaraso: That's definitely not the case on my system... as long as a window has focus, I can use the scroll wheel to scroll no matter where my pointer is.
EDIT: Actually, you're right - for IE you do need to have the cursor in the frame (whereas for Explorer you don't). Seems to vary on an app-by-app basis, too: of my currently running programs, WLM and WL Photo Gallery don't scroll without the cursor in the window, while Opera, Media Player Classic, Explorer and Acrobat Reader do.
Cuppa, try this: Open an explorer window with the Navigation Pane and expand the tree to the point where you get some wiggle room to scroll. Click on an empty portion of the explorer window to activate it then try using the scroll wheel on the Navigation Pane...
It won't budge until you activate the Pane! Somehow, their separate entities. This issue rears its ugly head when you use the Move To / Copy To functions on the context menu as well.
It'd be a big, big plus for me if this was changed in Windows 7.
@JonathanJ: I definitely agree in that specific case and I hope that it can be fixed for Windows 7 (I find it very irritating, too - I usually have to use middle click to get focus). However I wouldn't like a system-wide change for the reason I mentioned in my first post.
I can already do this with Firefox., and others.
It would be good to leave this option customizable by users.
I agree with Cuppa. Just make it so that the active window will scroll, no matter where the cursor is. I don't want to accidentally scroll something in the background.
+1
Great idea! It's really helpful when trying to read something and type about it at the same time.
This is already present in Ubuntu.
I would promote this +10 if I could :P
Ok, has this inactive window scroll become possible yet. I hear that some of you like to have to activate the window, but I think we should have the option to choose. I am constantly frustrated with my explorer for this reason, and open and close folders unintentionally while trying to scroll and navigate panes. Microsoft give us the power! NOW!
Comment edited on June 2, 2011, 5:22pm
Try KatMouse. Would be nice if this was built into Windows though. http://ehiti.de/katmouse/
I think there are two levels of scroll wheel focus concerning this topic: at window level, and at sub-pane level inside the active window. I also would not like to scroll in a non-active window when my mouse pointer hovers over it. But if the active window has several scrollable areas, and if my mouse pointer hovers over one of these areas I find it very annoying when it scrolls the other area (as currently in Windows Explorer). And when the mouse pointer hovers over an inactive window then let it scroll the sub-pane in the active window that has the focus.
Cuppa wrote on November 3, 2008, 7:09am
I have to disagree - I wouldn't want to have to keep my cursor in a narrow Explorer window to be able to scroll that content. I often have my web browser maximised with Explorer windows above it - scrolling a webpage in the background instead of the focused window would be quite annoying.