Why On Earth Would You Make Scrollbars Like This?

peanutaxis · Sep 23, 2025

Hi,

Windows 24H2 26100.6584

I understand why Microsoft would make ridiculously skinny scrollbars - because they value Form over happy users. But why ON EARTH would you make a strip to the RHS of the scrollbar where if I put my mouse there I can't scroll? Honestly....did Microoft design the two Death Stars too? ffs

maur0 · Sep 23, 2025

Do you prefer classic scrolling?

peanutaxis · Sep 23, 2025

maur0 said:
Do you prefer classic scrolling?

Probably. Why?

antspants · Sep 23, 2025

You have a question other than why Microsoft does things to their UI?

peanutaxis · Sep 23, 2025

antspants said:
You have a question other than why Microsoft does things to their UI?

no. I just want to know why on earth they would do that?

antspants · Sep 23, 2025

How would anyone here know why Microsoft does stuff? As we or the forum aren’t affiliated with Microsoft, we don’t have a finger on the pulse

Not sure if this would assist you, but there is an option to widen scrollbars (and other tweaks) in Winareo Tweaker app

Or there is this tutorial:

Change Scrollbar Size in Windows 11

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. See also: A brief history of Windows scroll bar shortcuts | Raymond Chen This...

www.elevenforum.com

cereberus · Sep 23, 2025

peanutaxis said:
Hi,

Windows 24H2 26100.6584

I understand why Microsoft would make ridiculously skinny scrollbars - because they value Form over happy users. But why ON EARTH would you make a strip to the RHS of the scrollbar where if I put my mouse there I can't scroll? Honestly....did Microoft design the two Death Stars too? ffs

View attachment 146284

This has been a longstanding gripe of mine. When my hands are especially arthritic, I struggle to grip scrollbar with a mouse.

cereberus · Sep 23, 2025

antspants said:
How would anyone here know why Microsoft does stuff? As we or the forum aren’t affiliated with Microsoft, we don’t have a finger on the pulse

Not sure if this would assist you, but there is an option to widen scrollbars (and other tweaks) in Winareo Tweaker app

Or there is this tutorial:

Change Scrollbar Size in Windows 11

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. See also: A brief history of Windows scroll bar shortcuts | Raymond Chen This...

www.elevenforum.com

Regrettably, this only affects some screens.

antspants · Sep 23, 2025

cereberus said:
Regrettably, this only affects some screens.

Right, I was wondering about ALL user UI’s

Maybe Winareo Tweaker has more options, I can’t remember.

peanutaxis · Sep 23, 2025

antspants said:
How would anyone here know why Microsoft does stuff? As we or the forum aren’t affiliated with Microsoft, we don’t have a finger on the pulse

Not sure if this would assist you, but there is an option to widen scrollbars (and other tweaks) in Winareo Tweaker app

Or there is this tutorial:

Change Scrollbar Size in Windows 11

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. See also: A brief history of Windows scroll bar shortcuts | Raymond Chen This...

www.elevenforum.com

This is a forum about Windows 11, no? Seems like a sensible place to ask questions about Windows 11.

I've already regedited and third-partied what I can, but some things are unchangeable. And it's ridiculous, unless someone else knows a sensible reason why they do this.

jimbo45 · Sep 23, 2025

peanutaxis said:
This is a forum about Windows 11, no? Seems like a sensible place to ask questions about Windows 11.

I've already regedited and third-partied what I can, but some things are unchangeable. And it's ridiculous, unless someone else knows a sensible reason why they do this.

The classic answer "because they can".

Ħowever another question might be -- if you were to start out making a user friendly bug free (or as far as possible) efficient OS today I doubt if Windows would come into the mix !!!

Still it is what it is and it works -- I doubt really if people spend a lot of time messing around with toolbars etc -- they are usually too busy actually RUNNING THINGS on their computers, and often doing sensible things like earning money with them, playing games on them, or designing the next generation of nasty weapons etc.

Cheers
jimbo

Eksy61 · Sep 23, 2025

A third-party app, WindowBlinds by Stardock, lets you completely skin the user interface with custom designed scrollbars and other elements.

If you hate the current scrollbars that much, you can make them look like Windows XP scrollbars or Macintosh scrollbars or any other kind of scrollbars.

Marcus Vinicus · Sep 23, 2025

Since there is a scrolling wheel on most mice MS probably think the scrollbar size doesn't matters so they made it skinny as. I never use them unless the scrolling wheel on the mouse doesn't work which isn't very often.

barreleye · Sep 23, 2025

Marcus Vinicus said:
Since there is a scrolling wheel on most mice MS probably think the scrollbar size doesn't matters so they made it skinny as. I never use them unless the scrolling wheel on the mouse doesn't work which isn't very often.

Let's not forget that for the longest time, Microsoft thought the mouse wheel should scroll the part of the window that has the keyboard focus, no matter what part of the window the mouse cursor was hovering over. lol

About scrollbars, maximize an Excel window, slam your mouse all the way to the right, and click the scrollbar or try to drag the thumb. Nothing happens. That's an especially annoying instance of the OP's complaint. It works in Edge now, but sometimes it takes a second click to register. (This always worked in Firefox and still does.) Then when you're dragging the thumb, don't veer too much to the left, or the thumb will snap back to where it was, telling you that you need to move to the right for reasons I've never understood.

dacrone · Sep 23, 2025

peanutaxis said:
about Windows 11

yes. but we're not Microsoft developers....

use WinaeroTweaker to modify them

neves · Sep 23, 2025

It's easy to change tho.

Win + R - type regedit

Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics and change ScrollWidth

Default is -252 - you can change it to -504 and looks like this:

Or use -952 if you really struggle with vision.

peanutaxis · Sep 24, 2025

Eksy61 said:
A third-party app, WindowBlinds by Stardock, lets you completely skin the user interface with custom designed scrollbars and other elements.

If you hate the current scrollbars that much, you can make them look like Windows XP scrollbars or Macintosh scrollbars or any other kind of scrollbars.

Thanks.

neves said:
It's easy to change tho.

Win + R - type regedit

Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics and change ScrollWidth

Default is -252 - you can change it to -504 and looks like this:

Or use -952 if you really struggle with vision.

As previously stated I have already done this but it doesn't fix many things. e.g. Settings.

neves · Sep 24, 2025

peanutaxis said:
Thanks.

As previously stated I have already done this but it doesn't fix many things. e.g. Settings.

Because that's basically an APP (a UWP app - to be more precise). You can only change scrollbars from dynamic (auto-hide) to a static state: Settings > Accessibility > Visual effects > Always show scrollbars . You'd have to unpack it - and modify the ScrollViewer style in XAML - to be able to change it. If you poor vision problems - you could try one of the contrast themes: Settings > Accessibility > Contrast Themes - which also apply to the Settings app. That will definitely give the Scrollbar a classic apearance - same goes for the rest of Windows.

hdmi · Sep 26, 2025

peanutaxis said:
Thanks.

As previously stated I have already done this but it doesn't fix many things. e.g. Settings.

Here is how it looks like on my 4k screen after I apply my own tweak:

(File Explorer is on the left, Windows Settings is on the right.)

Why On Earth Would You Make Scrollbars Like This?

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