How can I disable the mouse scroll wheel in Windows Vista

In Windows Vista, I have tried to set the setting 'the following number of lines at a time' to zero. I assumed my scroll wheel would not scroll anymore. But it still works.

I'm trying to disable the wheel because my RSI complaints worsen when using the scroll wheel often.

Does anyone have an idea on how to achieve this?

mathijsuitmegen

Posted 2010-07-23T12:29:27.687

Reputation: 243

Answers

Have you checked the related registry setting? In Registry Editor, go to

HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Control Panel > Desktop

and set WheelScrollLines = 0, then reboot your PC and check if it works.

If this doesn't work after reboot, or WheelScrollLines is reset to its previous value, then the problem may be the touchpad driver (I assume you are on a laptop) which may override the wheel settings for all mouse devices. To fix this, you should update the synaptics drivers.

Mehper C. Palavuzlar

Posted 2010-07-23T12:29:27.687

Reputation: 51 093

Nice one, The control panel kept resetting the scroll lines value. After setting the 'WheelScrollLines' value and a reboot my mouse scroll wheel no longer works. Woehoo! – mathijsuitmegen – 2010-07-27T06:41:07.127

You could use AutoHotKey!

WheelDown::
WheelUp::
return

Would tell both scrollings to do nothing at all. You'll have to place the .ahk file containing that into your startup folder, but this has the advantage of being an entirely software solution that can be easily disabled, and works per-user, so it won't inconvenience others if they ever use your PC.

Phoshi

Posted 2010-07-23T12:29:27.687

Reputation: 22 001

1I like the ingenuity of this answer!!! Hope I will use it one time when Windows registry will not let me set the WheelScrollLines setting. – mathijsuitmegen – 2010-07-27T06:42:13.597

In case anyone is wondering, this script doesn't disable middle click, just the scrolling part is disabled which is exactly what I was looking for. Much better than messing with the Windows Registry. – Ghos3t – 2018-01-14T05:14:29.783

Awesome - Thank You So Much! This was quick and worked like a charm! – Adel – 2012-05-15T02:35:23.633

Just remove the wheel from the mouse. Should be the easiest way; dissecting a mouse takes five minutes or so.

Joey

Posted 2010-07-23T12:29:27.687

Reputation: 36 381

1It's not my own mouse, I'd better not do that. – mathijsuitmegen – 2010-07-27T06:40:29.687

Removing the wheel from an apple magic mouse? That's not possible. And even if: I don't want to loose the scrolling from the host OS. Only VM I access via Remote Deskop has annoying behaviour. – Martin – 2018-12-18T14:44:16.810

1Actually, Phoshi's answer is faster(AutoHotKey) and no need to dispose/store the wheel. It may take some time to "relearn" in the fingers though. – Adel – 2012-05-15T02:38:38.373