What is smooth scrolling and how to enable/disable it?

You might have heard the term smooth scrolling on the internet and wondered what exactly is this? If you aren’t sure, smooth scrolling, as its name indicates, is a feature that allows you to scroll smoothly. The usual/normal scrolling is a bit choppier and might stop suddenly.

That’s why major applications like Google Chrome have introduced a new feature named smooth scrolling. When smooth scrolling is turned on, you’ll notice that the scrolling is a lot smoother and it won’t stop suddenly when you stop scrolling but rather scroll a bit past your scrolling point that will make the scroll a lot smoother.

The best way to describe the smooth scroll is to compare the regular mouse scroll with the scroll when the scroll wheel is pressed. If you press the mouse scroll wheel, you can move your mouse up/down and the scroll will be very smooth. Enabling a smooth scroll allows you to scroll like that with your regular wheel scroll. Smooth scrolling is also useful with keyboard shortcuts.

When this feature is enabled, pressing the Page Down button won’t just jump directly down one page. With smooth scrolling, it slides down smoothly, so you can see how much it scrolls.

This might not be a huge deal for you but it is a big deal for users who read a lot of long pages. The choppy scroll might be annoying for a lot of users and that’s why people are moving towards the smooth scroll option.

How to enable smooth scroll?

The most common use of scroll (in general) is on the internet while reading the contents of a webpage. That’s why the browsers are at the forefront when it comes to smooth scrolling. There are various different ways of enabling smooth scrolling depending on the browser you are using.

Enable Smooth Scroll in Google Chrome

Note: Smooth Scrolling is an experimental feature in Google Chrome. This means that it isn’t stable and might cause unwanted effects to your system or Google Chrome. So, turn this feature on at your own risk.

Here are the steps for enabling smooth scrolling in Google Chrome.

1. Open Google Chrome
2. Type chrome://flags/#smooth-scrolling and press Enter

3. You should be able to see the smooth scrolling flag on the top of the page
4. Select Enabled from the drop down menu

5. Click Relaunch Now

This should enable the smooth scrolling on Google Chrome. If you don’t like this feature or you simply want to disable it then just follow the steps given above and select Disabled from the drop-down menu in step 4.

Enable Smooth Scrolling in Firefox

Here are the steps for enabling smooth scrolling in Firefox.

1. Open Firefox browser
2. Type about:preferences in the address bar and press Enter
3. Scroll down to the browsing section
4. Check the box Use smooth scrolling

That’s it. This should enable the smooth scrolling for Firefox.

Note: If you feel like that the smooth scrolling on Firefox isn’t smooth then you might have to tweak a few settings to make it a lot smoother. Follow the instructions carefully and do not change any other value.

1. Open Firefox
2. Type about:config in the address bar and press Enter

3. Now you should be able to see a list of various flags and settings. Type smoothScroll.currentVelocityWeighting in the search bar

4. You should be able to see only one entry from the list. Double click it and change the value to 0.
5. Click Ok

6. Type smoothScroll.mouseWheel.durationMaxMS in the search bar

7. Double click the entry and change the value to 250
8. Click Ok

9. Type smoothScroll.stopDecelerationWeighting in the search bar

10. Double click the entry and change the value to 82
11. Click Ok

12. Type min_line_scroll_amount in the search bar

13. Double click the entry and change the value to 25
14. Click Ok

That’s it. Check if this makes the scroll smoother or not. You can try changing the values a little bit to see if it makes the scroll better but do it only if you are sure about what you are doing.

Enable Smooth Scrolling in Edge

Follow the steps given below to enable smooth scrolling in Edge

1. Hold Windows key and press R
2. Type systempropertiesadvanced and press Enter

3. Click Settings from the Performance section

4. Check the box smooth-scroll list boxes

5. Click Apply then select Ok
6. Click Ok again

This should enable smooth scrolling for the Edge browser.