Disable scroll wheel clicking in Firefox
I have one of those Microsoft mice here at work and its wheel is quite
light to the touch. It is so light in fact, that I often click it while
scrolling. By default, clicking the scroll wheel in Firefox puts it
into scrolling mode, showing this icon:
Now when you move the mouse up and down, the page will scroll.
That is so annoying!
It took me over 20 minutes of Googling to find how to disable that feature, so I’m documenting it here.
The option that controls it in Firefox is Tools > Options > Advanced > General > Browsing > Use autoscrolling.
Apparently “auto scrolling” is the name of this obscure feature, which is now forever disabled on all my machines.
16 Comments on “Disable scroll wheel clicking in Firefox”
I’d have thought a better fix was to replace your mouse. Unless you are unusually heavy on the wheel it shouldn’t click while you scroll.
Yep, that’s the better solution. Not necessarily the geekier one though :).
If you install the current Intellimouse driver you can define whatever you want for any button. I for example like the zoom function on the middle button :)
You can zoom in Firefox using Ctrl+Mousewheel, can’t you?
(o;
You’d want to use “grab and drag”
to replace the wheel.
(Nu, how’s Ubuntu feel? Hooked yet? ;o)
Grrr, WP ate the URL. Replace empty line above with:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1250
;o|
Excatly what I was looking for!
I scroll with the mouse wheel, and click it to open links in another tab, but sometimes the “autoscroll” gets activated by mistake and instead of opening the link I scroll the page.
Since I don’t use autoscroll, this is a perfect solution for me.
Thank you. :)
Thank You!
This was the first Google match for
firefox scroll wheel click
(though that wasn’t my first set of search terms ;-)
My use case was the same as Ludi’s; not “oops, rested my finger” clicks but “oops, just barely missed the link” deliberate clicks.
Annoying! And do people really read at a steady (if adjustable) pace like that? I know I tend to jump, reread, skim, etc.
Thanks! In a small but noticeable way you have made my life better.
Thankyou. I love you.
Many, many thanks
Actually i was looking for activating autoscrolling feature and i’ve found this blog. Thanks :)
I want do ADD this feature in Safari, do you know if it is possible?
You’re amazing. Thanks!!!
Thank you so much! I have been so annoyed with the scroll wheel clicking and going into the ‘autoscroll’ state.
Now if I could only turn it off in all my other applications too…
Thank God for intelligent people like the original poster. I only had to Google for a couple of minutes and my problem was fixed.
Thank you for sharing!
Yeah, Auto-Scroll is pointless and if anything inconvenient. Why would anyone suggest buying a new mouse when this solution does the trick? lol
You don’t get geek points for wasting money!