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Is there a way to make a mouse scroll wheel invert its direction? I'd like to scroll upwards and have that action scroll downwards and vice-versa. There is no setting on the Mouse control panel that makes this possible.

Any pointers to a hack or a particular mouse model that has such a setting would be appreciated. I am using Windows 7.

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I thought this forum had serious members willing to help. This is a genuine use case. Mac OS X Lion has inverted the direction of the scrolling to match the physical scroll action your finger uses on a touch screen (iPhone, iPad, etc). I find this to be quite helpful. I'd like the same experience when I have to use Windows. – Christian Correa Jul 14 '11 at 22:25
Lion inverted scrolling? Seriously? That's a party foul, thanks for the heads up. – Shinrai Jul 14 '11 at 23:02
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@Shinrai Yes, they inverted the direction but it's configurable. After trying it for a few days it actually makes a lot of sense. The "muscle memory" we've built over the years on the iOS devices applied to OS X makes it almost "feel" like you're touching Safari on the desktop, for instance. It's one of those things you have to try for yourself and decide. – Christian Correa Jul 14 '11 at 23:09
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5 Answers

up vote 24 down vote accepted

First install AutoHotKey. Now create a script that looks like this :

WheelUp::
Send {WheelDown}
Return

WheelDown::
Send {WheelUp}
Return

Save it as a .ahk file and double-click the file to run it. Now you should have inverted the mouse wheel scrolling.

All information from here.

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I'll try this out at work and if it works I'll tag your answer as the right answer. Thanks! – Christian Correa Jul 14 '11 at 23:10
Works great. It's not perfect, every now and then it won't catch the "key" event, but as long as you keep scrolling, the very next event will be caught. The net effect is what I was looking for. So that would have to do for now, until manufacturers make this option configurable in Windows. Thanks! – Christian Correa Jul 15 '11 at 19:07
There is an option in registry as suggested by Richard. – tig Feb 1 at 15:44
AutoHotkey is awesome! – Bojan Bjelic Mar 5 at 8:25
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up vote 19 down vote

There is a registry setting named FlipFlopWheel that does this! HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\HID\????\????\Device Parameters. There might be multiple mouse entries. The default value for FlipFlopWheel should already ready 0. Change into 1 to invert scrolling. Reboot or possibly replug in mouse for changes to take effect.

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I hate installing additional software and this is the perfect solution for me. Thanks! – Danail Nachev Dec 6 '11 at 19:43
love it! i always got confused when toggling beween windows and mac! – athos Apr 13 at 10:36
See Jay Sheldon's answer to figure out what the ????\???? should be. – Steve Nay Apr 29 at 21:57
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up vote 10 down vote

I used the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\HID\VID_???\????\Device Parameters method and it worked very nicely. To get the VID_??? number you go to the mouse control panel and click the Hardware tab then click properties.

Now in the HID-compliant mouse Properties window click the details tab and select the "Device Instance Path" property. The registry path is in there. I only had to unplug and plug back in my mouse for this to take effect.

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up vote 9 down vote

You can also use the application X-Mouse Button Control to accomplish this. You only need to set the "Wheel Up" button to the "Scroll Window Down" command, and vice-versa. I am using this on Windows XP, but the app should work on 7 or Vista, also. It was very quick to set up, and since it's a GUI application, it was easier to use.

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v2.2 has an "invert mouse wheel scrolling" on the "Scrolling & Navigation" tab. – Lars Truijens Nov 14 '11 at 20:26
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up vote 1 down vote

I installed X-Mouse Button Control on my Windows 7 and scrolling is now reversed. Works perfect. Same direction as my home Mac with OS X Lion.

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This should have probably been a comment on my answer, adding that it works on Windows 7, rather than a separate answer (as it's a duplicate) – Dov Aug 3 '11 at 16:11
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