When you get used to the Mac’s natural scrolling, it is hard to get back to the old way.
Just to give you a primer on this topic, natural scrolling is scrolling with your mouse like you are actually touching the page. So if you want to go down the page, you simply swipe the scroll wheel up, and vice versa. This is actually more intuitive because it removes the mouse out of the equation so that each swipe feels like you are actually swiping the screen.
So since Microsoft insists on its traditional way of scrolling (i.e. the other way around), it has been my habit to find a way to reverse the scroll direction every time I plug a new one in. My old mouse crapped out on me today with double-clicks everywhere, so I had to dig this command from my stash since it’s been a while. So this is how it is done:
How to reverse scrolling direction on Windows to emulate natural scrolling
Note that this applies to USB mice only (wired or wireless). I am not sure how I was able to make my work mouse work over Bluetooth, but I will probably update this when I find out.
- Open PowerShell as administrator
- Copy/Paste these magic words into the shell prompt:
Get-ItemProperty HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\HID\*\*\Device` Parameters FlipFlopWheel -EA 0 | ForEach-Object { Set-ItemProperty $_.PSPath FlipFlopWheel 1 }- If you are successful, you should see the shell prompt again with the blinking cursor. Otherwise, review the instructions and find out what you did wrong.
- Unplug and replug your mouse on the USB, whether wired or wireless.
- Profit!
Now this may need some getting used to, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll see how it makes much more sense, and it will be hard to go back to the old way. Good luck!