How to disable the middle button scrolling in Chrome

Question

When I press middle mouse button, it opens:

It is so difficult to control the scrolling. Is there any way to disable this?

Solution 1

Update 27 Jul 2020: It appears that the following extension is no longer in the Chrome Store. I still have it installed and it was not removed. I'm looking into whether I can find out more info...

For those interested, the entirety of the source for the extension is as follows. This may also work as a Tampermonkey user script.

var target;

window.addEventListener('mousedown', function(mouseEvent) {
  if(mouseEvent.button != 1)
      return;
  target = mouseEvent.target;

  mouseEvent.preventDefault();
  mouseEvent.stopPropagation();
}, true);

There's an extension named (incorrectly) "No Smooth Scrolling" which disables this:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/no-smooth-scrolling/oikddacoldignalphkgeppnpalkmkgbo

Solution 2

The No Smooth Scroll 2 Chrome Web Store extension (which is similar to the no-longer-available extension No Smooth Scrolling) successfully disables middle-button-automatic-scrolling in Chrome 89 on Windows, but continues to allow other middle-button actions (open link in new tab, close tab, etc.)

The extension's source code is:

document.addEventListener("mousedown", function(mouseEvent) {
    if (mouseEvent.button != 1) {
        return;
    }
    mouseEvent.preventDefault();
    mouseEvent.stopPropagation();
});

Solution 3

I'm not sure why, but Google is definitely lobbying this rather frustrating auto-scroll - there was an option to disable it few years earlier, but than it was removed, and Google keeps removing extensions which fix this problem.

I've tried to use TamperMonkey but for some reason script just doesn't load, also TamperMonkey seems to be too heavyweight for such a small fix.

So, I've downloaded it from https://www.crx4chrome.com/crx/158473/ - unpacked to folder (it is ZIP archive), checked content (to avoid malware) and enabled dev mode in chrome extensions, then added unpacked folder as new developer extension - and it worked instantly.

Solution 4

Get the latest drivers for your mouse and see if you can reassign the wheel click to a macro through its settings.

It should be reassigned to: Middle-click [very short sleep] ESC

If you can't get drivers with this feature, I suggest you write a very simple script in Autohotkey to do the exact same thing.

It should look something like this:

#IfWinActive ahk_class Chrome_WidgetWin_1
MBUTTON::
Click Middle
Sleep 10
Sendinput {ESC}
Return

View more solutions

Comments

[Admin]

tsk, no hand drawn circle?

[Admin]

@Hemant, Chrome I assume?

[Admin]

Yes. I am using Chrome.

[Admin]

Obvious answer: Can't you just not press the middle button then?

[Admin]

I need to press it to open the page in new tab, but sometimes this scrolling is enabled accidentally.

[Admin]

The chosen answer is doesn't solve the original issue, so why was it chosen?

[Admin]

I would also like to know how to disable this autoscrolling crap, Chrome is not configurable at all, I don't understand why it's being used by so many people. And I don't get either why the answer was accepted, it doesn't solve the issue at all.

[Admin]

The chrome extension does solve this. Changing the accepted answer.

[hyperslug]

He'll probably want to keep middle button for stuff like Open link in new tab.

[Hemant]

Yeah...Cant loose "Open link in new tab". Just want to disable the scrolling.

[Joey]

I guess you're at a loss then. Chrome isn't exactly a very configurable browser. And yes, middle-click scrolling there sucks (it's interestingly also magnitudes slower than normal scrolling, I just wonder why). You might be able to rip that functionality out of the source and build yourself but for a project that size it's not a pretty task to do.

[Hemant]

Done: code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=22476

[David Yates]

I control-click for Open in New Tab :)

[ericslaw]

control-click for the win!

[yurkennis]

As of Version 33.0.1750.154 Stable for Windows, restarting Chrome is not necessary to take effect, only refreshing the page. Do you mind if I suggest edit to your answer?

[fIwJlxSzApHEZIl]

this is not working for me unfortunately

[Tobias J]

@yurkennis I've updated the answer to say it may no longer need a restart but I couldn't find info about the specific version where this was fixed and whether it's just Windows or all platforms; do you have a link?

[yurkennis]

@TobyJ Thanks! No I don't, unfortunately...

[Bob Stein]

Doesn't need a browser restart, but does need a page reload.

[Paul Gorbas]

This worked for me too, and yes it did require a page reload before it started to work. But come-on Chrome developers, an extension should NOT be required to turn off this 'feature', it should have been an option in the first place and one disabled by default IMHO, but should had always been an option.

[Don]

I wish I could upvote this more then 1 time, I really disslike the smooth scrolling feature and you just made my day, thank you.

[mhsmith]

This link no longer works.

[Bob Stein]

Worked on Chrome 92 / Windows 11 after restarting Chrome.

[zoechi]

Extension doesn't seem to exist anymore

[Bob Stein]

Smooth scrolling still happens under view-source. This extension will not disable that.

[Admin]

Worked great. Required a restart of chrome. Per the crx4chrome page, drag and drop the crx file onto the chrome extensions page to install it.