Why is the scroll bar in Windows 11 so narrow? In what world is this an improvement?

The "improvement" is that in Windows 11, you don't have to put the mouse pointer on a scroll bar in order to scroll an app. Just rest the mouse pointer anywhere on the window, and scroll the scroll wheel.

This is particularly handy when you are working with two (or more) open windows. Just move the mouse pointer onto another window and scroll that window with the scroll wheel. No need to hunt for a scroll bar.

I have to object to this reasoning. They could have done that without making the scroll bars so small.

And the scroll wheel is only useful if there is a positively *tiny* amount of scrolling to be done.

If you e.g. open a large log file in a text editor, you will soon see that using the vertical scoll bar is both much faster and less tiring.

Hello , sorry about your problems. My name is Marco and I will do my best to help you.

As Chien Sage said, you can use the mouse wheel to scroll. The fact that few people click directly on the scroll bar made Microsoft make this decision.

Windows 11 aims to provide a sleek and modern user interface. Narrower scroll bars contribute to a cleaner and less cluttered appearance, which is in line with current design trends that emphasize minimalism.

The design changes in Windows 11 also cater to touchscreen devices. Narrower scroll bars can be less intrusive on touchscreens, where users often rely on gestures rather than precise clicks.

However, you can change the size if you wish.

Open the Settings app.

Navigate to Accessibility > Visual effects.

Toggle the Always show scrollbars option to On. This will make the scroll bars more visible and slightly wider.

Otherwise, if you are a more advanced user, you can go to the registry to change the size.

Open Registry Editor by typing regedit in the Run dialog (Win + R).

Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics.

Modify the ScrollHeight and ScrollWidth values. The default value is -225, which corresponds to 15 pixels. Increasing this value (e.g., to -450 for 30 pixels) will make the scroll bars wider.

Sign out and back in or restart your computer to apply the changes.

---Before any change in the registry, I advise you to make a backup https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-t... ---

Marco offered the following options. Neither are acceptable to me.

> Open the Settings app.
> Navigate to Accessibility > Visual effects.
> Toggle the Always show scrollbars option to On. This will make the scroll bars more visible and slightly wider.

This does sort of work, but they are only SLIGHTLY wider, and still quite difficult to "grab" the active area.

> Otherwise, if you are a more advanced user, you can go to the registry to change the size.
> Open Registry Editor by typing regedit in the Run dialog (Win + R).
> Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics.
> Modify the ScrollHeight and ScrollWidth values. The default value is -225, which corresponds to 15 pixels. Increasing this value (e.g., to -450 for 30 pixels) will make the scroll bars wider.

Sadly, while this probably really helps a lot more than the first solution, it is useless to people whose organizations do not allow users to edit their registry, and won't make changes for them because it will create configuration control issues.

Microsoft REALLY screwed up with this. REALLY REALLY screwed the pooch.

I just check my old Windows 10 installation. Here, in the settings app, the scroll bar is a LINE (even thinner than Windows 11!) but when you move your mouse over it, it expands out to the full width and becomes quite useable. Why does Windows 11 not duplicate this functionality? It's even LESS "cluttered" than the half-a***d solution in Windows 11.

Also, one should never have to EDIT THE REGISTRY to fix something as trivial as this. You don't make users edit the registry for the font, do you, Microsoft? You let us change ICON sizes in the taskbar without going to the registry. WHY do you not make this kind of thing REALLY easy for users to change? It's unacceptable. Get your act together, please.

Finally, somewhere in this thread someone wrote that something along the lines of "Why are you even using scroll bars? Just use the mouse scroll wheel." Well, when you have a spreadsheet with 10,000+ lines, playing with the scroll wheel is a joke. You'll be there for 10 minutes and get carpal tunnel really quick.

Yes, there are apps and situations that I would rather use the scroll bar, but you guys made the thing too narrow. You young people need to think about older people, people with visual and other problems.

Using the scroll wheel is only possible if you are using a mouse without one. I am using an old trackman marble mouse and it doesn't have a scroll wheel. Forcing "improvements" on people without any option to change it on their device, is pretty crummy thing for a company to do. And no i will not be switching out my mouse, this one can be used on any surface and in a tiny amount of space. Not that i'm trying to advertise it to anyone but it is my favorite mouse, the best i have ever used in over 20 years. I don't have to worry about having enough desk space or having a mouse pad to have a functional mouse. I also dislike using the arrow keys since the movement is very choppy and not great for reading continuously.

I am going to try out the fixes offered in this thread. I just wanted to share my thoughts on this so called improvement that reduced accessibility.