In Windows, you can change how scrolling works for touchpads and mice. Usually, when you scroll up, the content moves down. But you can change this setting if you’d like it to work the opposite way. It’s a simple way to make scrolling feel more natural and the way you like it in Windows.
Reverse touchpad scroll direction in Windows 10
The scroll direction determines how the scroll moves as soon as we move two fingers over the touchpad (e.g., on Microsoft Surface) wipe. This setting is valid system-wide, i.e., it affects applications, the system, and websites.
Microsoft has integrated the option to change the direction for touchpad scrolling in the Windows settings. No intervention in the registry is therefore necessary.
For this tip, you only need to open the Windows settings (Windows key + I) and then under “Devices” -> “touchpad.” On the right side, you will then find in the area “scrolling and zooming” the point “scroll direction.”
Change the Scroll direction settings.
You can now use the drop-down field to change the scrolling direction. The selected entry is valid immediately as soon as it is clicked. You can choose from the following:
- Move down to scroll up (default)
- Move down to scroll down
Essential: These settings only apply to the internal or an external touchpad but not the mouse wheel. Unfortunately, this requires a little more work.
Change mouse Scroll direction.
Unfortunately, the scroll direction for the mouse wheel is not that easy to configure in Windows 10 or 11. There is no way around the Windows Registry either.
First, we need to find the device instance path of the mouse. This is shown to us in the Windows device manager in the details of the respective mouse.
So go to Device Manager and open under “Mice and other pointing devices“ by right-clicking the properties of your mouse. If there are several entries with the same name, you have to experiment a bit (if necessary, pull out the cable of your mouse and see which entry disappears).
Once you have opened the mouse properties, click on the tab “details” and select the property ” device instance path.” The value is now displayed below. Here you only need the part between the first two “” – in this case, “VID_093A&PID_2510“.
Reverse the mouse wheel scroll direction.
The second step now leads to the Windows Registry:
- Start Registry Editor (regedit)
- Navigate to the following path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetEnumHID
- Under this path, find the entry of the previously noted device instance (VID_xxx)
- Expand the subfolders of this key and click “device parameters.“
- On the right-hand side, double-click “FlipFlopWheel‘ and change the entry from 0 to 1.
- Then confirm the change with “OK‘ and restart Windows.
Of course, the solution to changing the scroll direction of a mouse wheel is a bit tedious. Perhaps this option will be included in the Windows settings at some point. By the way, undoing works the same way: if you want to reverse the scrolling direction, the value must be changed from 1 to 0 again.
