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djinncoyoteI've used KatMouse for many years on Windows 7 computers. It lets you scroll whichever window your mouse pointer is over, using your mouse-wheel. The window doesn't need to have focus - you can scroll a window without having clicked it first.
It's especially useful for Windows Explorer. You can scroll through the left pane to find the folder you're interested in, click that folder so that its files are displayed in the right pane, and then immediately scroll down through the files in the right pane without another click.
Whenever I use a computer without this functionality, it feels tedious and awkward having to click before being able to scroll. So naturally, on my newer Win8.1 computer, I installed KatMouse as well. At first it worked fine. But later on, it was intermittently not working. So I searched for a fix.
In doing so, I discovered that Windows 10 has the same functionality built-in and enabled by default. Even better, Windows 8 has this functionality too, although it requires a registry tweak to enable it:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
Set the MouseWheelRouting value to 3 to turn it on, or 1 to turn it off
Logout and back in
The built-in functionality even works on some windows, such as Task Manager, which KatMouse didn't work on.
I was curious whether the registry tweak would work in Windows 7 too, so I tried it out. Windows 7 did not have the MouseWheelRouting key by default, so added it. However, it did not work on Windows 7. This only works on Windows 8 +.
It's especially useful for Windows Explorer. You can scroll through the left pane to find the folder you're interested in, click that folder so that its files are displayed in the right pane, and then immediately scroll down through the files in the right pane without another click.
Whenever I use a computer without this functionality, it feels tedious and awkward having to click before being able to scroll. So naturally, on my newer Win8.1 computer, I installed KatMouse as well. At first it worked fine. But later on, it was intermittently not working. So I searched for a fix.
In doing so, I discovered that Windows 10 has the same functionality built-in and enabled by default. Even better, Windows 8 has this functionality too, although it requires a registry tweak to enable it:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
Set the MouseWheelRouting value to 3 to turn it on, or 1 to turn it off
Logout and back in
The built-in functionality even works on some windows, such as Task Manager, which KatMouse didn't work on.
I was curious whether the registry tweak would work in Windows 7 too, so I tried it out. Windows 7 did not have the MouseWheelRouting key by default, so added it. However, it did not work on Windows 7. This only works on Windows 8 +.