You may have noticed that whenever you scroll up or down any document or web page using the mouse, it gets scrolled 3 lines at a time. This is the default setting in Windows, as a result of which, when you scroll your Word documents or any web page in any browser, a single scroll wheel notch makes the page jump 3 lines.
If you wish to changes this setting on your Windows system-wide, or in most major browsers like Microsoft Edge, Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Opera – natively or by taking third-party tool help, you can do it as follows:
Enable Smooth Scrolling in Windows 11/10
To change the scrolling settings system-wide on your Windows computer, open the Control Panel > Mouse > Wheels tab. Here you can change the figure from 3, to 2 or even 1 if you wish. This will make any page or document scroll 1 line at a time. If you change this setting, it would be changed system-wide, ie. for your documents as well as browsers.
This may not make the scrolling smoother, but because it is scrolled 1 line at a time, it gives you more control and appears to be smoother.
If you wish to change it only for your web browsers, and keep the default Windows setting as it is, you can do the following in Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer, Chrome, Opera and Firefox.
1] Enable Smooth Scrolling on Edge browser
- Type systempropertiesadvanced in the Start search box and hit Enter
- This will open the System Properties box.
- Select Avanced tab > Performance > Settings button.
- Under Visual Effects, locate and select the Smooth-scroll list boxes box.
- Click Apply/OK and exit.
In the new Edge (Chromium), you can also do the following.
Type edge://flags and hit Enter.
Search for ‘smooth’.
Select Enabled against Smooth scrolling and restart the browser.
2] Enable Smooth Scrolling in Chrome
In the Chrome browser, do the following.
Type chrome://flags and hit Enter.
Search for ‘smooth’.
Select Enabled against Smooth scrolling and restart the browser.
You can also use the Chromium Wheel Smooth Scroller add-on to achieve this. The Modern Scroll add-on will let you customize your scrolling experience.
3] Enable Smooth Scrolling on Firefox
Open Firefox Options > General tab > Browsing section> Ensure that Use smooth scrolling is checked.
Firefox users can also use the Yet Another Smooth Scrolling extension. It makes the mouse scrolling experience smoother and also supports keyboard scrolling. It even lets you customize your smooth scrolling behavior, in terms of step size, smoothness and acceleration sensitivity.
4] Enable Smooth Scrolling in Opera
Type opera://flags in the address bar and hit Enter.
Search for ‘smooth’.
Select Enabled against Smooth scrolling and restart the browser.
You could also check out Classic Scroll add-on which offers you a smooth scrolling experience.
5] Enable Smooth Scrolling in Internet Explorer
Open Internet Options. Under Advanced, you will an option to Use Smooth scrolling, under the Browsing section. Select the check box and click Apply. You can even use our Ultimate Windows Tweaker to change this setting in a click.
Feedback and observations about these suggestions are most welcome.