Windows 11 is finally making it easy to change your mouse wheel scroll direction

An upcoming update will add the ability to change the behavior of your mouse scroll wheel in Windows Settings.

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What you need to know

What you need to know

Microsoft is finally adding an option to flip the behavior of your mouse’s scroll wheel to theWindows 11Settings app, letting users change the direction of scrolling with just a few clicks. Up until now, switching the scroll direction on a mouserequired editing the Windows Registry, but that will no longer be the case soon.

Spotted in thelatest Windows 11 preview build, the ability to change the scrolling direction on mice is being added to the mouse settings page in the Windows Settings app. By default, it’s set to “down motion scrolls down,” as that’s what most people are likely used to. However, some people prefer the opposite, where a down motion actually scrolls up.

Changing this behavior mimics touchpads, which attempt to replicate a touchscreen. So a two-finger swipe down on a touchpad will scroll a page up. This behavior is reversed with a mouse wheel, but some people don’t like that. If you are one of those people, you’ll soon be able to change it to match the direction as if you were using a touchpad or touchscreen with ease in the Settings app.

Users have been able to change the behavior of scrolling on a touchpad within the Windows Settings app for many years, but for whatever reason the company is only just getting around to adding the same option for mice. Users have been able to change this behavior with third-party software for years, but it’s nice to get a built-in native option for users to easily configure.

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Zac Bowden is a Senior Editor at Windows Central. Bringing you exclusive coverage into the world of Windows on PCs, tablets, phones, and more. Also an avid collector of rare Microsoft prototype devices! Keep in touch onTwitterandThreads