How do I get rid of the Windows 11 scroll bars and get the old Windows bars back?

hdmi · Sep 13, 2022

Ghot said:
My Firefox scroll bars haven't changed. But I have Firefox seriously tweaked also.

Narrow Scrollbars

Windows 10: Windows 11: Maybe tomorrow I'll fire up my Windows 10 VM and compare the scrollbars.

www.elevenforum.com

Ghot · Sep 13, 2022

Apparently I have: widget.non-native-theme.scrollbar.style ...set to 0 in Firefox.

@hdmi Added to my FF tweaks post

Firefox... taming the beast part 2 !! - Windows 10 Help Forums

First things first... stop Firefox from automatically updating. Simply unzip and drop this "distribution" folder into... C:\\Program Files\\Mozilla Firefox After manually updating Firefox this folder will be erased, so save a copy somewher

www.tenforums.com

I just set Scrollbar width to 17 in Winaero. I had issues of one sort or another with anything larger than 17.

hdmi · Sep 13, 2022

Ghot said:
Apparently I have: widget.non-native-theme.scrollbar.style ...set to 0 in Firefox.

I have it set to 4 = Windows 10 style.

Ghot said:
I just set Scrollbar width to 17 in Winaero. I had issues of one sort or another with anything larger than 17.

I just remembered that you can avoid these issues by manually changing the numbers to -260 in the Windows registry so they─or some of 'em anyway─become slightly wider (and IMO it is still an improvement, even though the difference is rather subtle), yet, the setting in Winaero Tweaker gets rounded down to 17, which is still the default setting in Winaero Tweaker, but which isn't the default in the Windows registry, as the default in the Windows registry is -255. lol
See also: Change Scrollbar Size in Windows 11 Tutorial

So, with the scaling set to 150% on a 4k TV, here is how mine look like:

atinfo · Sep 13, 2022

I hate the new thin Scrollbar, I really hate that (I hate touch devices and any device I have to touch to work! I love my keyboard and mouse). As I realized there is no way to change it (with Registry tweak/trick, changing the themes, …) because:

Vertical scroll bar too narrow · Issue #12395 · microsoft/terminal

The vertical scroll bar was sufficiently narrow so as to make it difficult to use. And, IIRC, someone recently asked about making it wider (I'll second that, a little late). In 1.13.10336.0 it&...

github.com

GitHub - microsoft/microsoft-ui-xaml: Windows UI Library: the latest Windows 10 native controls and Fluent styles for your applications

Windows UI Library: the latest Windows 10 native controls and Fluent styles for your applications - GitHub - microsoft/microsoft-ui-xaml: Windows UI Library: the latest Windows 10 native controls a...

github.com

Ghot · Sep 13, 2022

Ok... mine seems to like even number multiples of 15. I settled on -15 x 26 = -390
This is the result. Screen is at default scaling...

I have the mouse hovering in the RED box...

Odd multiples of -15, seem to give me problems.
Anyway... time to make a new backup cause this afternoon is Patch Tuesday.

I changed the numbers manually, in the registry.

hdmi · Sep 13, 2022

Ghot said:
Odd multiples of -15, seem to give me problems.

Ghot · Sep 13, 2022

pseudonym · Nov 4, 2022

+1 for hating on the new thin scrollbars. Win11 22H1 delivered on a brand-new Surface I just got this week.

I go back and forth between touchscreen and keyboard, and I can only manipulate those tiny scrollbars using a mouse (I don't use a pen). My fingers must be too fat or those scrollbars are too little. I'm voting for the latter as the fat scrollbars of the past worked fine with my fingers on my other touchscreen devices.

kiwisteve · Nov 4, 2022

Hi pseudonym3k,

Try this setting.

pseudonym · Nov 4, 2022

Thank you! The scrollbars are a bit 'fatter' now and touchscreen finger control works again. If there are any issues I'll post back, but right now this is much much better!

Ghot · Nov 4, 2022

After much testing, I think I came up with the perfect scroll bar size settings in the registry...

Change Scrollbar Size in Windows 11 Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how to change the size of scrollbars for you account in Windows 10 and Windows 11. You can change the height and width size of scrollbars in Windows to be as thick or thin as you want. This will not affect the size of scrollbars used in Microsoft Store apps and any...

www.elevenforum.com

You'll need to sign out and sign back in, or restart the computer, for this registry edit to take effect.

f14tomcat · Nov 4, 2022

FWIW, you do not need to grab the scroll bar in order to scroll. Just use the middle wheel. Virtually all mouses have them. Arrows on KB work too. Or go back to Win 10, or 8.1, or 7, or Vista, or XP, or.............. an abacus.

Edwin · Nov 4, 2022

Occasionally I'll use the Scroll Here thing...

hdmi · Nov 5, 2022

pseudonym3k said:
+1 for hating on the new thin scrollbars. Win11 22H1 delivered on a brand-new Surface I just got this week.

I go back and forth between touchscreen and keyboard, and I can only manipulate those tiny scrollbars using a mouse (I don't use a pen). My fingers must be too fat or those scrollbars are too little. I'm voting for the latter as the fat scrollbars of the past worked fine with my fingers on my other touchscreen devices.

So how about teaching yourself some Two-Finger Zen?

Turn On or Off Drag Two Fingers to Scroll on Touchpad in Windows 11 Tutorial

If your Windows 11 device (ex: laptop) has a built-in precision touchpad, you can turn on or off the ability to drag two fingers to scroll on the touchpad. This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off drag two fingers to scroll on the touchpad for your account in Windows 11. Option...

www.elevenforum.com

pseudonym · Nov 5, 2022

Thanks, I use all of that already. Without going into details and reasons, there are times when directly moving the scrollbar is best for what I want. The thin scrollbars will not move for me with my fingers.

hdmi · Nov 6, 2022

pseudonym3k said:
Thanks, I use all of that already. Without going into details and reasons, there are times when directly moving the scrollbar is best for what I want. The thin scrollbars will not move for me with my fingers.

I understand. Actually, I am using this registry setting myself also:

reg add "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics" /v ScrollWidth /t REG_SZ /d -260 /f

If I try to make it even wider than that, then it messes up my windows with the alignment. Microsoft "philosophy" is that you have to hover your mouse pointer to find the one pixel that can be clicked on, same as with a Sierra adventure (Police Quest, Space Quest, King's Quest, Leasure Suit Larry,...). And, if you don't like this, then you're a luddite so, lucky for me, I'm old enough to have played them all.

Alex7691 · Mar 16, 2024

OrthodoxWin32 said:
Use the Aerolite visual style. Or a custom visual style. Above all, it's pointless to downgrade to WIndows 10 just for that, it's an easily solvable issue. How to Enable Aero Lite Theme in Windows 11

The only thing that actually fixes this is the use of Aerolite theme, as suggested by OrthodoxWin32. Thanks for that.

Easy to turn it on/off at any time via WinAeroTweaker. I had WinAeroTweaker installed to handle other of the many annoyances of Windows 11, but have never tried the Aerolite theme. This brings back the old Windows 8 aerolite theme to Windows 11. Ate least I have working scrollbars.