It happens to me so many times that I roll the scroll wheel over some scrollable element, but the thing DOES NOT SCROLL. What's worse, something else on another part of the screen may scroll.
I know very well why that happens. Windows is sending the command to the active element in the active window, i.e. the thing that has focus.
But that behavior is absurd. The focus is meant for the keyboard not for the mouse. If I click a mouse button, that click goes to whatever is under the mouse pointer, not to the focused element.
THE KEYBOARD IS THE ONE THAT NEEDS A FOCUSED ELEMENT, NOT THE MOUSE!!!
Anyways, enough protesting.
Is there any way of correcting this so it works in the logical and intuitive way? that is, to scroll the thing that's under the mouse pointer.
EDIT:
I'm looking for a general solution for all versions of Windows (at least from WinXP on) as the problem is present in all of them.
EDIT 2:
I'm aware of the X-mouse feature, but that's not what I need. I dont want other windows/elements to gain focus just because the pointer is over them, that's more an annoyance than not.
EDIT 3:
I'm looking for a solution that works at the gui-control level, i.e. scroll the specific element in the window that the mouse is pointing at (think about MDI windows like Windows Explorer with a left and center panel, etc.)