How can I disable the mouse scroll wheel in Windows Vista

In Windows Vista, I have tried to set the setting 'the following number of lines at a time' to zero. I assumed my scroll wheel would not scroll anymore. But it still works.

I'm trying to disable the wheel because my RSI complaints worsen when using the scroll wheel often.

Does anyone have an idea on how to achieve this?

Solution 1:

Have you checked the related registry setting? In Registry Editor, go to

HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Control Panel > Desktop

and set WheelScrollLines = 0, then reboot your PC and check if it works.

If this doesn't work after reboot, or WheelScrollLines is reset to its previous value, then the problem may be the touchpad driver (I assume you are on a laptop) which may override the wheel settings for all mouse devices. To fix this, you should update the synaptics drivers.

Solution 2:

You could use AutoHotKey!

WheelDown::
WheelUp::
return

Would tell both scrollings to do nothing at all. You'll have to place the .ahk file containing that into your startup folder, but this has the advantage of being an entirely software solution that can be easily disabled, and works per-user, so it won't inconvenience others if they ever use your PC.