31

When I press middle mouse button, it opens:

alt text

It is so difficult to control the scrolling. Is there any way to disable this?

8
  • tsk, no hand drawn circle?
    – hyperslug
    Sep 21, 2009 at 6:30
  • @Hemant, Chrome I assume?
    – hyperslug
    Sep 21, 2009 at 6:39
  • Yes. I am using Chrome.
    – Hemant
    Sep 21, 2009 at 6:39
  • Obvious answer: Can't you just not press the middle button then? Sep 21, 2009 at 7:45
  • 5
    I need to press it to open the page in new tab, but sometimes this scrolling is enabled accidentally.
    – Hemant
    Sep 21, 2009 at 8:11

7 Answers 7

31

Update 27 Jul 2020: It appears that the following extension is no longer in the Chrome Store. I still have it installed and it was not removed. I'm looking into whether I can find out more info...

For those interested, the entirety of the source for the extension is as follows. This may also work as a Tampermonkey user script.

var target;

window.addEventListener('mousedown', function(mouseEvent) {
  if(mouseEvent.button != 1)
      return;
  target = mouseEvent.target;

  mouseEvent.preventDefault();
  mouseEvent.stopPropagation();
}, true);

There's an extension named (incorrectly) "No Smooth Scrolling" which disables this:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/no-smooth-scrolling/oikddacoldignalphkgeppnpalkmkgbo

8
  • 1
    As of Version 33.0.1750.154 Stable for Windows, restarting Chrome is not necessary to take effect, only refreshing the page. Do you mind if I suggest edit to your answer?
    – yurkennis
    Apr 8, 2014 at 21:29
  • 3
    Doesn't need a browser restart, but does need a page reload.
    – Bob Stein
    Feb 10, 2016 at 5:35
  • 1
    This worked for me too, and yes it did require a page reload before it started to work. But come-on Chrome developers, an extension should NOT be required to turn off this 'feature', it should have been an option in the first place and one disabled by default IMHO, but should had always been an option. Aug 10, 2016 at 23:19
  • 2
    I wish I could upvote this more then 1 time, I really disslike the smooth scrolling feature and you just made my day, thank you.
    – Don
    Jan 1, 2018 at 11:28
  • 3
    This link no longer works.
    – mhsmith
    Jul 25, 2020 at 20:37
3

The No Smooth Scroll 2 Chrome Web Store extension (which is similar to the no-longer-available extension No Smooth Scrolling) successfully disables middle-button-automatic-scrolling in Chrome 89 on Windows, but continues to allow other middle-button actions (open link in new tab, close tab, etc.)

The extension's source code is:

document.addEventListener("mousedown", function(mouseEvent) {
    if (mouseEvent.button != 1) {
        return;
    }
    mouseEvent.preventDefault();
    mouseEvent.stopPropagation();
});
3
  • Worked on Chrome 92 / Windows 11 after restarting Chrome.
    – Bob Stein
    Aug 1, 2021 at 23:44
  • 4
    Extension doesn't seem to exist anymore
    – zoechi
    Jan 9, 2022 at 16:20
  • Smooth scrolling still happens under view-source. This extension will not disable that.
    – Bob Stein
    Apr 23, 2022 at 17:14
2

Get the latest drivers for your mouse and see if you can reassign the wheel click to a macro through its settings.

It should be reassigned to: Middle-click [very short sleep] ESC

If you can't get drivers with this feature, I suggest you write a very simple script in Autohotkey to do the exact same thing.

It should look something like this:

#IfWinActive ahk_class Chrome_WidgetWin_1
MBUTTON::
Click Middle
Sleep 10
Sendinput {ESC}
Return
1
  • This worked for me, using the X-Mouse Button Control app to reassign the wheel click.
    – Herb
    Aug 24, 2023 at 17:04
1

I'm not sure why, but Google is definitely lobbying this rather frustrating auto-scroll - there was an option to disable it few years earlier, but than it was removed, and Google keeps removing extensions which fix this problem.

I've tried to use TamperMonkey but for some reason script just doesn't load, also TamperMonkey seems to be too heavyweight for such a small fix.

So, I've downloaded it from https://www.crx4chrome.com/crx/158473/ - unpacked to folder (it is ZIP archive), checked content (to avoid malware) and enabled dev mode in chrome extensions, then added unpacked folder as new developer extension - and it worked instantly.

1
  • Worked great. Required a restart of chrome. Per the crx4chrome page, drag and drop the crx file onto the chrome extensions page to install it.
    – thin
    Apr 28, 2022 at 16:35
0

Works with Tampermonkey v4.18.1 in Chrome and Brave.

Please reload target web page, after changing script in Tampermonkey extension.

// ==UserScript==
// @name         Disable Smooth Scroll
// @namespace    http://tampermonkey.net/
// @version      0.1
// @description  Disable mouse middle button completely. As a result it does not activate browser smooth scroll. Open hyperlink in a new tab with middle button click still works.
// @match        *://*/*
// @grant        none
// ==/UserScript==

(function() {
    'use strict';
    document.addEventListener("mousedown", function(mouseEvent) {
        if (mouseEvent.button != 1) {
            return;
        }
        mouseEvent.preventDefault();
        mouseEvent.stopPropagation();
    });
})();
-1

In your mouse control panel, you need to disable the middle button, if it will allow you to.

The multi-directional cursor vs a standard up/down cursor should also be because your window is too small, and has both vertical and horizontal scroll bars.

If you make your window bigger, the scroll should only be up/down :)

7
  • 10
    He'll probably want to keep middle button for stuff like Open link in new tab.
    – hyperslug
    Sep 21, 2009 at 6:33
  • 4
    Yeah...Cant loose "Open link in new tab". Just want to disable the scrolling.
    – Hemant
    Sep 21, 2009 at 6:41
  • 3
    I guess you're at a loss then. Chrome isn't exactly a very configurable browser. And yes, middle-click scrolling there sucks (it's interestingly also magnitudes slower than normal scrolling, I just wonder why). You might be able to rip that functionality out of the source and build yourself but for a project that size it's not a pretty task to do.
    – Joey
    Sep 21, 2009 at 6:55
  • 1
    You can post a feature request here: code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/…
    – hyperslug
    Sep 21, 2009 at 7:00
  • 2
    I control-click for Open in New Tab :)
    – warren
    Sep 21, 2009 at 12:14
-1

In Logitech Options, the middle button was assigned to "Middle button". I reassigned it to "None" in the long list of possible actions (action center, close desktop, Cortana, sleep... no thank you!) and I no longer get this annoying multidirectional scroll in Chrome.

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