If you’re having weird issues with your Surface like missing features, weird crashes, or blue screens it might be due to some corruption or missing system files. These types of issues can be particularly frustrating because your Surface might work fine 99% of the time and just have a weird quirk that’s only frustrating once in a while.

For example, not too long ago I had a problem on my Surface Book where I couldn’t open the All Settings screen from the Notification Center icon in the system tray. I could bring up the Notification Center easily enough but when I would click on the All Settings option, nothing would happen. I figured there might be folks out there that have been experiencing similar weird stuff and I could help them out by writing up what I did to fix my machine.

The simple tools outlined below are surprisingly effective at solving such weird issues with Surface devices. Believe it or not, these two tools can solve 95% of weirdness, crashing or blue screen problems you may have on a Surface. Even if you don’t need them at the moment, you might in the future, so it would be a good idea to bookmark this page. Issues with Surface Tablet: System File Checker included a utility in Windows that will scan and verify the system files on your Surface. Better yet, if it finds something wrong, it will try to fix it for you. It’s really easy to use but, you’ll need to start with an elevated command prompt. If you don’t know what that is, it’s essentially a command prompt that allows you to do things that require admin rights.

I know you may already be logged in with an account that is setup as an administrator but that’s not good enough. It can be confusing and outside of the scope of what we’re doing here; so, just go with it for now, OK?. Make sure your Surface is plugged into power (this can take a while). Go to Desktop mode. Tap and hold the Start button to bring up the Power Users Menu.

Select Command Prompt (Admin) from the list. You’ll get a warning prompt, tap OK. Bring up the on screen. In the command line window, enter “SFC /scannow” and tap enter to run it The system will automatically scan your system files and attempt to fix anything it finds amiss. It can take quite a while, so be patient. It will tell you how far along the process is – so just don’t mess with your Surface until it’s done. If nothing was found to be wrong, you’ll get a message that looks like this: However, if System File Checker finds something wrong and can fix it, you’ll get something that will look more like this: Finally, if System File Checker finds something wrong but couldn’t fix it, you’ll see something like this: If this is the case, you might need to try a Check Disk (next section) then retry the System File Checker.

Weird Scroll-down When I Hit Entertainment

If it fails the 2nd time, I’m afraid that you might need to consider doing a system Surface has some corrupt system files and, in my experience, the corruption tends to get worse over time. Sooner or later, the corruption will get to the point that your Surface might not boot or you might lose data. Issues with Surface Tablet: Check Disk (chkdsk) Another thing that could be going wrong is some corruption or bad sectors on the hard drive. This can happen when a Windows computer (like your Surface) isn’t shut down gracefully but, can also happen for a number of other reasons like a failing hard drive or malware infection. Make sure your Surface is connected to power. Go to Desktop Mode.

Bring up an Elevated Command prompt. You’ll get a warning prompt, tap OK.

Bring up the On-Screen. Enter the command “chkdsk /R” and tap Enter.

A message will appear telling you that chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use and ask if you would like to schedule a chkdsk at the next restart. Type Y and tap Enter. Restart your machine gracefully. When it comes back up, you’ll get a boot screen something like the one below: Be patient, this will take quite a while. That’s why I had you connect your Surface to power, as you do not want your Surface to run out of juice halfway through a chkdsk. It might also seem to get stuck at several points along the way.

This is normal so don’t worry about it. If it finds something wrong, it will automatically try to fix it and recover any corrupt files. When it’s done, it will boot normally and you can log in at that point. Hopefully, any weirdness issues with Surface devices you may be experiencing can be fixed with one or both of the tools above.

Tim (Last Update: 1/6/16). Guys, I love your blog and follow it keenly. I have the original surface RT as well as the surface 2. Of late, I have had huge issues with my surface 2. The screen keep freezing randomly. While it is a problem, it is also an embarrassment as I proudly flaunt my Surface to my friends and when this happens they all snigger and say I should have bought the iPad. I love my surface 2 for the balance it gives me between work and fun.

I have tried every possible trick under the sun to get these issues sorted but in vain. I spent more than an hour with a Microsoft Surface tech support person yesterday and we did a full reset and all but the problem has come up again today. Microsoft has said they will replace my machine.

Once I get the new one, I will update you on how it works. Till then I will continue to follow your blog and all your helpful tips. Hi hoping you can help or offer advice. Ive been having issues with my sfcpro2 keyboard/cover/touchpad not connecting or being detected ive tried every solution i can find on the web. As i purchased my sfcpro 2 2nd hand ive always been curious to what it actually was ie a surface or a surface pro was it a 1 or a 2 as its case said ‘win 8’ and ‘surface’ on the back and that was all and boot screen just says ‘surface’. A microsoft site detection thingy confirmed it was a sfcpro2 256gb model by entering its serial number. Unfortunately i discovered its actual model after i did that 2 finger reset which alot of sites warn you against doing on a surface pro 2 (hold volume up and power for 15 secs).

I also think i may have done the 2 finger salute sorry reset prior to the cover stuffing up while attempting a similar operatron to enter the bios (same key presses but volume up held and tap power then release volume up 10 secs later) even tho i am confusing many here im sure you experts follow me perfectly. End result = alot of hassle and worry for very little results as not even the big bad factory reset seems to fix it so next stop is either the scrub HDD recycle reset or perhaps installing 8.1 via usb. Please can you steer me in the right direction. Id rather destroy it via over use not abuse!! Hi Rob, Did you purchase the SP2 and the cover together? It is possible that you have a bad cover.

I’d recommend stopping at Best Buy and seeing if you can your Surface to work with one of their covers. This way you’ll know for sure. Also, I’m assuming you’ve already found our suggestions on cover problems and tried them: On the topic of Windows 8.1, your SP2, was originally sold with Win 8, and in order to update all you have to do is run all of the Microsoft updates, the Win 8.1 update is free. Ceri, Try to turn it on in a quiet darkened room.

Remember to hold down the power button for at least 20 seconds before releasing it. Does the screen light up at all? If you leave it on for a few minutes, does it make any noise? (fans, for example) Also, try plugging in a USB device that has a power light (like a USB key or mouse) to see if it’s supplying power. If it’s not lighting up or making noise at all, try these tips for fixing battery charging issues just in case the root cause is a dead battery that’s having difficulty charging.

If that’s not it, it might just be a dead unit and you might have have to see if MS can do an exchange/repair. Well, I think I have tried everything you suggested. I have a refurbished RT that I bought on Amazon about 45 days ago. A week or so ago I bought a new Surface Type Cover 2 at a local office supply house. The RT recognizes the keyboard (keyboard has power, the track pad works and the backlight and volume keys work plus the on-screen keyboard that is particular to having a keyboard attached is accessible and functions), but none of the typing keys work. I have checked repeatedly for updates (with the keyboard connected), and cleaned the contacts on both the keyboard and RT. Today I took the keyboard back to the office supply store and tested in on a Surface 2 display unit and it worked fine.

Since they did not have an open box keyboard to test with my RT, I went to Best Buy and used one of their open box Type Cover 2 units on my RT. It displayed the same characteristics as my keyboard.

I came home tonight and went step by step through all of your suggestions again, this time including the scannow and chkdsk processes. After reboot, same thing – the RT recognizes the keyboard and the touchpad works, but that’s it. Is there anything I have missed?

I really hate to have try going back to Amazon for a replacement even though I believe this unit came with a 1-year warranty. Sorry Bruce, we missed it.

Sounds like you were pretty thorough. I don’t know if we can help but, let’s give it a go. Let’s start simple. What happens if you plug in a USB keyboard or connect a Bluetooth one?

Assuming that works and acts normally, disconnect the external keyboard and attach the keyboard cover. Next, try going into device manager and uninstalling the Surface Type Cover Filter Device item under Keyboards. Then power off the Surface, start it and turn up your sound volume. Next, connect the type cover and see if it works.

If it doesn’t does it make the “USB device detected” sound that you normally get when you plug in a USB thumbdrive? Also, you could try step six from the Keyboard Issues post again after uninstalling the keyboard from device manager to see if that helps. In case you don’t remember – Go to your Desktop – Open Device Manager (in Control Panel) – Click Keyboards – Press and hold on your keyboard item – Select Update Driver Software (Surface Touch Cover Filter Device) from the menu – Select Browse my computer for driver software – Select Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer – If there are two versions presented, pick version 141 for Pro or 101 for RT to install. If there is only one version shown, pick and install it If it’s a driver issue, hopefully, that will solve it.

If it doesn’t, there’s the possibility that your refurbished RT has a problem. Where did you get it? Tim, I attached a USB keyboard and that worked (including the USB sound). I then disconnected the USB keyboard and attached the Type cover but did not get the USB sound. Then I tried to go thru the additional steps you outlined but got stymied when I touched the keyboard line under device manager. It showed an HID entry only but I may have inadvertently uninstalled that driver because there does not seem to be any kind of driver for the keyboard at all any more. In fact there is not even a keyboard entry on the list under device manager, only Human Interface Devices.

So I went to Microsoft.com/surface to check for updates and downloaded several updates and restarted per the instructions. Same situation. Surface sees the keyboard but the typing keys don’t work, just the mouse, volume, backlighting, etc. The on-screen keyboard that is associated with the cover keyboard is displayed when requested. Going to the device manager – no keyboard, just Human Interface Devices.

Somewhere along the line I lost the capability to touch the Window logo on the bottom of the tablet and can only access the main screen by swiping in from the right and touching the Windows logo there. I bought the refurbished Surface through Amazon through Dealfisher and it was supposed to have a 1-year warranty. It was delivered in early October but I was out of the country at the time. I bought the Type cover about 2 weeks ago at Staples. It really seems like I am missing a driver but I just can’t find the driver to install or reinstall. Any other thoughts?

First I’d like to thank you. You’ve provide much insight. My Surface RT touch screen gets these circles which look like pressure is being applied to the screen.

Then it gets very glitchy. The screen will flutter, zoom in and out, not respond to anything. I have to turn it off and on, after which it may calm down or get worse. Also either during these episodes my on screen keyboard type addition letter when the space bar is pressed or any letter in that vicinity. Would love to hear if other are experiencing the same and what is suggested to rectify this prob. MJones, I actually had to replace a Surface with similar issues (turns out it was defective hardware) but, before you visit the Microsoft Store or contact support here are a few things to try: – Make sure all of the patches have been applied first. – If you have a good idea when it started, you might want to look at uninstalling any software that was installed around that date.

It could be that some piece of software is buggy. – You could try a reset of your Surface (under update and recovery) it is a pain but, it will set it back to factory defaults.

Hope these help, Tim. My wife just purchased a refurbished Surface 2. She charged it overnight as directed and then I began the start up procedures in the beginning.

I got through most of it until after choosing the customized settings and then the screen had problems. The screen has horizontal lines that flicker in different off colors like RGB problems. I tried the SFC/scannow listed above but no errors were detected.

What is really bizarre is that the lines do not show up if I am in the update/recovery screen. In this mode the screen is perfect, but as soon as I back out to the PC settings screen the lines and flicker starts up again.

If I go to the start menu the lines are all across the screen as well Same in the desktop mode. I have tried to update the nVidia driver but it says that it’s fully upgraded. Right now I am downloading upgrades hoping that it will solve the issue this way. Any advice would be welcome. Fixing Windows RT devices is tricky since you can’t do a lot of things. Did the updates do the trick?

If not, do you happen to have an external monitor you can connect to see if the problem is the video controller or screen hardware? Obviously you’ve already surmised that it’s probably a controller/driver issue since it’s working in recovery mode but, I’d double-check if you can. I’ve seen video issues be weird like that.

Something you might want to try is logging in with a different account. Windows RT compartmentalizes a lot of things and it’s possible it’s a user profile issue If you log into a different account and everything is fine, you can probably fix the profile by using these steps Hope this helps, Tim. Hi Guys, my name is Roger and I am currently in HKG, I bought a Surface Pro 3 i7 256Gb about ten days ago, This week I installed and signed up for Office 365, however when ever I save any file in office and turn off the Surface the files are corrupt when trying to open again, this applies to all files that I have worked on or saved. Now it is applying to all software files. I have done numerous deep scan virus checks, Run the System File Checker, Used Win 8.1 re install, reloaded everything and I still get the same result.

Another thing that happens is that when trying the use Save-AS function on all software the software hangs and does not respond for up to 2 mins before continuing. If I save to an external source and unplug it before turning off all is well I can open the files again, I have also had a few Blue Screens of Death as well in the past few days. Does anyone have any idea if this could be a Surface issue as it seem,s software related to me Would really appreciate some feed back on this. Cori, First try holding the power button down for 10-20 seconds then restarting the Surface to see if it can recover. If that doesn’t work, you might want to consider a 2-button shutdown by holding the volume-up and power button at the same time for 20 seconds then waiting 15 seconds and finally turning it back on normally. Be aware, though, Microsoft doesn’t recommend doing this (though no one seems to know why) but, if it’s not working anyway, it might help.

You could also try a checkdisk or SFC from the advanced recovery tools since it might be some disk corruption at the heart of you issue. You’ll just need to get into the command prompt from the advanced recovery tools to do either. Hi I have a Surface RT (1 yr & 1/2 old) and it suddenly crashed as I was saving a photo I forwarded of my unexpectedly recently deceased dog. I downloaded the recovery on USB but didn’t work.

Entered bitlocker recovery key but didn’t work. I live an Canada, contacted a local shop to query if they repair Microsoft tablets but no response. I’m going to try the information you provided above. I receive a blue screen with some prompts but again, no self-repair attempt has restored windows. Any further suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I followed the advice from, “Try these Issues with Surface Tablet?” Love My Surface, Tim Rolston, 21 April 2015.

It resulted in the discovery of corrupt files which Windows was unable to repair. It created 3 log files, of which I pasted the 1st one below and embedded the two others.

I additionally noticed an issue in Device Manager. That being an unknown device with no device type, manufacturer, or location. Whether this is related to the SFC problem previously discussed. I am not sure of my next action, as I do not want to foul the system, which I often do.

If anyone is of advice and wants to share, please do so. I forwent including the log file content because it is 293 pages in length.

“Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them. Details are included in the CBS.Log windir Logs CBS CBS.log. For example C: Windows Logs CBS CBS.log. Note that logging is currently not supported in offline servicing scenarios.”. Nini, I hate to tell you this but, the Surface Pro isn’t really fixable once something like that happens. You can try to get it replaced but, it will likely cost hundreds of dollars (if they even offer the service). You might be better off getting a new Surface.

If you happen to have a MS Store nearby,i’d talk to them before the guys at Best Buy. Give them a good sob story and they.might. swap it out for a new unit as most of them are really trying to establish good customer service. I know I’ve been able to talk them into fixing stuff they shouldn’t have fixed under the rules of the warranty.

Dear Tim, thank you very much for the useful information on your blog! My surface pro 3 is experiencing problems to perform a programme that runs in matlab – it unexpectedly quits the software and moves to the start screen. Sometimes you’re able to return to the software; sometimes the screen freezes. I thought that was a problem with matlab installation at the beginning, but this is happening even when the software is not running. And when it happens the start button does not work or delays a lot. I checked for system files and it did show the error message you mentioned above – corrupted files, not able to fix.

Then I checked disk and it was also not able to fix the problems. I am not able to reset the computer now because I don’t have everything that needs to be installed in order to the programme to run. Is there another way around? Best regards Marina.

I’ve had the same issue too, with my MS cordless mouse, and it’s very annoying. It subsides if I wait a few seconds after a page loads, or click in a blank area. For the future, the back/forward scrolling should work only when Shift is held down, as on other browsers including IE. Also, I’d like to see right-clicking for forward/back brought back. Some other things I’d like to see: ability to group pages in history by date and site like IE; a Print icon; ability to open PDF documents in Adobe Reader, either within or separately from Edge - this works from some sites, especially Facebook, but not others. I am having the same problems. The problem with turning on Scroll Inactive Windows when I hover over them is if you use sliders in programs a lot using the scroll wheel you greatly diminish the usefulness of those.

The problem stems from moving away from the slider you’re trying to dial in even slightly unselects it. If you’re trying to do something and not watch the slider but rather watch what you’re adjusting you can move your mouse a few pixels and it all stops working. This behavior ONLY happens to me on Edge. I’m not sure if other MS products may be affected, like Office, etc but it doesn’t happen in Chrome or Firefox. If you can’t reproduce it you’re just lucky. It’s a complete waste of time when it happens.

This lends to the feeling that MS Edge is completely amateur hour. Other browsers continue to surpass Micorosoft in the browser field. I was encouraged when I found Edge could use Extensions, Plug-ins and Scripts. But when I got everything set up Edge crashed. When it came back it gave a notice that it “disabled” all those extensions. It didn’t just disable them, it deleted them, and it took all browsing history, logins, saved passwords and saved bookmarks with it. This is with using the same stuff that I use in Chrome.

It all just feels like Edge is still in Beta and nobody at Microsoft seems to care. Here’s a repro. Go to stackoverflow. You will see the main page of questions. Use the mouse wheel to scroll up and down.

Works as expected. Click on a question.

Any question. Question loads. Click on the back arrow in the toolbar. This is important.

Do not use any shortcuts. Scroll the mousewheel down. What happens: You go back in history. What should happen: The page scrolls down. I’m guessing the arrow button or possibly its host still has focus, and it interprets mouse wheel events as a desire to go backwards/forwards in history. You’re killing me with this. Stop killing me.

Thanks to those that have pointed to setting “scroll inactive windows” to ON. You have provided a work around for what has been a really annoying problem for me. The annoying thing here was the setting is not in the MS wireless mouse settings where I’d changed every possible setting but is in the Windows settings.

Now, I don’t want to scroll inactive windows when I have several pages open so this still leave an issue do I get annoyed with inactive windows scrolling when I don’t want them to or do I get absolutely livid with the scroll wheel flicking me back and forth through web pages? - Neither is acceptable! James M/MS Engineering team: PLEASE REVISIT THIS BUG, IT IS EASILY REPRODUCABLE, as described in the comments section here. I rarely use Edge because it is so unstable.

But I happened to just have it open and was browsing on eBay when I encountered this issue. 'BUT I didn’t have my mouse pointer over the tab bar!' , I said to myself, thinking that it had switched tabs because that’s how mousewheel scrolling affects (by design) tabs in my usual browser. But no, this was going back and forward in Edge’s History. And I have to ask: WHY???

Coding a computer program follows rules of logic, as in “If x, then y.” So it is inconceivable that a positive or negative change in the “mousewheelscroll” value (or whatever it is called) would ever call up a (go to) Browser History (+1) or (-1) request. Should be an easy bug to find and fix. But no, we’re 6 months past when the bug was reported and there’s no action because a MS employee who could perhaps contribute positively decided 'can’t reproduce'/'can’t be bothered'. Windows Mobile is dead because of this same attitude (and poor original coding). Logitech M330 mouse and MS Edge. Immediately after left clicking the Back button, I use the scroll wheel to move down the page, but instead it goes Back a page or more in history. For the scroll wheel to operate correctly I must click within the page before using the scroll wheel.

My ASUS Q503UA came with Windows 10 installed. Scroll wheel worked correctly until I reset my laptop because it was running extremely slow and is slowing exponentially. Resetting did not improve the speed at all but now the scroll wheel does not operate correctly. I have the exact same issue. It is so frustrating that I can’t be bothered to use Edge any more! I go to scroll the page with the mouse wheel and it goes back in history to previous page, I scroll the other way and it goes forward in history. It seems intermittent and seems when I click on screen before scrolling it will not happen.

I have a MICROSOFT!! Wireless Mobile Mouse 3500! So Microsoft can’t blame the mouse manufacturer. It is annoying that Microsoft is the only company that can’t do the simplest of things and make a web browser scroll a page with the mouse wheel! They have to make it so it is buggy and frustrating All other companies whole make web browsers seem to have no problem scrolling a web page. This is ridiculous. The problem has not returned after I did a complete reset since.

I’ve received numerous updates since then and am at ‘winver’ 1709 16299.192. My mouse is a Logitech M525 and I have SetPoint installed. I’ve also tested Edge with my corded/USB optical mouse.

This is not the first time I did a complete reset. This time went really fast. I wrote down everything I have to do to get it back to where I want it. It is a fire and forget and let it run overnight. I liked how crisp everything ran after the reset so I did it to another PC just for the hell of it.

The only thing you must remember is each time you do a reset it changes the 'hostname’. Licensed products may be affected. You can change the ‘PC name’ back to what it was or to whatever.

This is my plan from now on when my PC starts acting weird. Norton can’t cover 100%. Neither can Windows. Have you ever noticed when you uninstall something not all of it gets uninstalled? I have a Logitech M325 mouse and I have this problem as well. Too bad folks at Microsoft are not technically savy enough to figure out that this is a serious problemor maybe they do realize it and are just too uncaring or rude to respond to us with an acknowledgement of the problem. Anyway I am pretty disappointed as this issue is driving me crazy.

I will try the fix that you all have discussed above and see if it solves my problem as well. Thanks to all the folks that responded with a fix. Much appreciated!!! The bug is 100% reproducible and only showed up during this week’s update on my Lenovo W520 laptop.

In addition to swapping pages in the browser’s history at times the pointer will not click on the lower part of a page. If I use the bar to move the link further up on the page I can then click on it.

I have started to use IE again as it is as stable as a battleship. Common Microsoft GET IN THE GAME! I like EDGE but it is totally useless at the moment. I have tried all the recommended fixes above and have reset my laptop with Windows 10 and repaired EDGE using the app repair and it still is broken. Stan S., you can use RevoUninstaller to get rid of all those left over files. As far as mouse scrolling goes, clicking on the page first is the only thing that works for me, which is an added hassle, but I have gotten so used to doing it now that it’s a habit I may never get rid of.

I am sure someone at Microsoft thought this was an ingenious idea, and by now, they’ve forgotten this comment section because it’s been labelled as 'not reproducible’. Maybe it’s time to start harassing Microsoft customer service for a fix. I have this issue and I hate it! Basically when I start to view a new page in EDGE, if I happen to roll the wheel on the mouse before the page is completely finished loading, the mouse wheel works as a Forward or Back for the browser. Often this accidentally happens because I want to scroll up or down.

I have found that if I click on the loading page, that it prevents the Forward/Back. Still this is extremely annoying when I just want to move down the page and end up trying to load other pages instead. My computer may be slower than what they are trying to reproduce this on. YOU DO NOT NEED TO RESET WINDOWS IN ORDER TO STOP THIS SIDESCROLLING BEHAVIOR! Here are the steps to solve this issue:.

Open WIN 10 Settings. Ignore your browser. Ignore your Mouse settings.

In order to fix this, you need to change the WIN 10 settings. Click the second icon labeled DEVICES. Along the left. Side of the screen, click the option for MOUSE. This will open your Windows 10 Mouse Settings.

Click the Button labeled SCROLL INACTIVE WINDOWS WHEN I HOVER OVER THEM. This will turn on this setting.

Now you will not have the sidescrolling problem. For me this error happens right after I play any game on Steam. I’ve just started playing back Thalos Principle, and noticed that, after closing the game, scrolling the wheel will cause MS Edge to move back and forward in the history instead of scrolling the current page.

Playing L4D2 also reproduces this problem. I noticed that by closing all MSEdge windows the issue goes away.

Problem is: doing this I lose all the tabs I have opened, which I don’t want to. Doing the “Scroll Inactive Windows” thing doesn’t work for me, so the only thing I found to help me is to restart windows, which is pretty fast thanks to SSD drives, but quite annoying. PS: Right now I’m under the effects of this problem. I’ve managed to navigate to this control with Tab and Shift+Tab. I’ve also noticed that, when trying to press on the “Add Comment” button, focus will be lost and Tab / Shift + Tab will stop working. The way to recover from this is to click on any other tab, then on the tab for this page - now I can navigate again with Tab / Shift Tab. Overall it feels like there is some invisible layer on Edge that captures the clicks and the mouse wheel events.

Hopefully this explanation will ring some bell Thanks in advance. @Lo G, I don’t want Scroll Inactive Windows.

I use a graphics editor all the time where I have to click in a box that controls eraser size or paintbrush or whatever and then scroll to increment/decrement while I’m moving to the image to edit. With that setting I have to carefully wait over the text box. I also don’t want to do a complete reset–far too much set up on my computer. Edge used to have some advanced navigation settings and now I can’t find them. Perhaps I’m stuck with some weird setting that I can’t fix now.

I’ll just use firefox. @Enrique, I agree there’s something weird about how MS handles clicks.

In Mail I often have to click a web link multiple times before it goes to browser. Also when selecting text in a file Save As and right clicking for the context menu to paste a filename, paste often does nothing or simply loses my selection while still showing the context menu. I like Windows 10 very much but there are some quirks. The ‘Steps to reproduce’ does not reproduce with my MS Edge. It does not forward/backward browser history with the scroll wheel. All is fine ever since I did a 'reset’.

The only thing that is new is every time I click on a link it opens a new tab instead of using the current tab. It’s not just Edge.

It is doing it in Explorer. I traced it to Google. It does not do that with Bing, nor MSN. Maybe the problem is with Google, and not Edge. Could explain why this problem does not occur with Chrome. @Stan S, NOBODY WANTS TO RESET WINDOWS FOR A FREAKING FOCUS ISSUE. And it does too happen in Bing.

I just tried it. Search for a term, search for another, click the back history button, now you go to scroll the page and because the history controls still have the focus it changes the page. Nobody needs to go through history with the scroll wheel, and if you have the default scroll over inactive windows set, it wouldn’t scroll history while over the page anyway. If the history controls didn’t look for the scroll wheel the event would likely go to scroll the page like everyone in their right minds intends. It’s an understandable coding bug (really a decision perhaps for speedy users to hover over the control and go back 3 pages without having to click 3 times), but such an insignificant shortcut fails miserably when scroll over inactive windows isn’t set so it should be removed. This is the most annoying “feature” of Microsoft Edge - I have tried everything to try and stop this happening and still cannot fix it.

I use a Microsoft Mouse and have checked through all available options including Windows 10 mouse device options and cannot stop the stupid and annoying, time wasting aspect of the scroll mouse moving between pages instead of scrolling the damn page I am on. Microsoft please take this issue seriously as it makes Edge just rubbish to use with a scroll mouse. Peter L. Would be nice if someone from the MICROSOFT EDGE TEAM could pin the “fix” to the top so people can get the answer straight away.

Open WIN 10 Settings. Click the second icon labeled DEVICES.

Along the left. Side of the screen, click the option for MOUSE. This will open your Windows 10 Mouse Settings. Click the Button labeled SCROLL INACTIVE WINDOWS WHEN I HOVER OVER THEM. This will turn on this setting.

While not ideal, it is a work-around that works. I lived with this issue for weeks before I decided to search for it. Happy to know I wasn’t alone.

Sad to see that MS has been aware for so long and the problem persists. Microsoft Edge Team Steven K. Mar 30, 2018 2018-03-30T03:10:32.22Z Changed Assigned To to “Steven K.” Steven K. Mar 30, 2018 2018-03-30T03:24:53.7Z Changed Status from “Not reproducible”. Steven K. 2018-03-30T03:41:26.96Z Microsoft Edge Team. Hi everyone, I found this page after I finally got annoyed enough to investigate.

I am reactivating this bug report.:) I appreciate the continued feedback, the repro steps from Roger J., and the workaround from Wotherspoon F. That workaround is a life saver. I have attached a screenshot of the “Mouse” setting that needs to be enabled for the workaround.

As an FYI, I repro’d this in 16299.309 and in a recent insider build. Steve. Microsoft Edge Team OSG V. Mar 30, 2018 2018-03-30T03:50:02.97Z Changed Assigned To to “wptcomptri”. michael w.

Same problem for me. Very annoying. My computer: HP ZBook Studio G3 Mouse: HP Wireless Mouse G3K Windows: MS Office 16 Pro Browser: MS Edge Inactive Windows Scrolling: OFF Webpage: Recreate the problem:. set Edge configuration to open new windows in tabs. start Edge. open startpage.

do a search for “New 2018 HP Laptop computers”. Navigate to one of the selections returned by startpage. select the tab containing startpage. navigate to another selection for the search above (now you have 3 tabs open). return to the startpage tab. DO NOT mouse click. let your mouse pointer come to a stop ANYWHERE on the page.

use your mouse scroll wheel as if you want to go up/down on the page. instead of going up/down the wheel scrolls through the pages you opened in tabs. Occurs for me as well, using a Bluetooth Surface Arcmouse on my Asus Laptop. I’ve also performed this with another USB Arcmouse I have on the same system. This started when I got the Creators update late last year. Click a link on any webpage in Edge Scroll the wheel on the mouse after the page loads Click the browser back button Wait for previous page to load Scroll the wheel on the mouse down (as if going for more info on the original page) EXPECTED RESULTS: Scroll down the page ACTUAL RESULTS: Page goes forward to the page opened via link. Scrolling backward at this point makes the page go backward through progression.

NOTES: If you click in the middle of the newly reloaded page (after pressing the back button) this doesn’t occur. This is a work around only though. I would really rather see this fixed. When it was first posted in January to set the mouse setting “Scroll Inactive Windows when I Hover Over Them” to On fixed this issue for me.

Or I should say, gave me the work around needed. I didn’t post then because I thought it’d be resolved after that. I’m adding my voice now so that Microsoft knows the issue is not resolved. And that users are getting beyond fed up that this seemingly simple to fix issue is still an issue. Does this mean Microsoft is getting out of the browser business? Seems likely. Since it’s the only viable answer why they refuse to support Edge.

I recently bought a new mouse G502 Logitech and thought it was a mouse related problem with that crazy scrolling. Makes me nuts. I browse in chrome and firefox, and play wow. The problem exists all the time. Followed up on leads I found here, for which thanks, but nothing really works. I don’t know what to do.

Can’t play reliably when my mouse is uncontrollable. If this is a Microsoft issue, then please fix it. If it is not then help us solve this problem please. To MS EdgeTeam: How is the current status on this issue? In which windows update is planned the fix? Don’t let us die stupid.;-). Microsoft Edge Team Warren S.

Jun 18, 2018 2018-06-18T21:56:08.843Z Changed Assigned To from “wptcomptri” to “Laura M.” Laura M. Jun 19, 2018 2018-06-19T16:22:30.56Z Changed Steps to Reproduce Laura M. Jun 19, 2018 2018-06-19T16:22:30.56Z Changed Title from “Mouse Wheel does a forward/back through browser history” to “Mouse Wheel does a forward/back through browser history when focus is in address bar and 'Scroll inactive windows' is disabled” Laura M. Jun 19, 2018 2018-06-19T16:22:30.56Z Changed Assigned To from “Laura M.” to “John S.” Laura M. Jun 19, 2018 2018-06-19T16:22:30.56Z Changed Status to “Confirmed” John S. Jul 2, 2018 2018-07-02T17:57:28.363Z Changed Status from “Confirmed” to “In code review” MicrosoftUserFeedbackService Jul 10, 2018 2018-07-10T05:59:40.467Z Changed Steps to Reproduce John S.

Jul 10, 2018 2018-07-10T21:06:26.673Z Changed Status from “In code review” to “Fixed”. Oliver K. This issue is the one reason I am getting pulled back to other browsers. For me, every time I press the back button on edge, and I am back at the previous page, if I scroll downBOOM, I am scrolling through my history, have to wait for the page to load, then have to scroll back. The way I stop it is: After hitting the back button, clicking the left mouse button on the page BEFORE scrolling. However, when working fast I always forget. Very frustrating.

I also have windows set not to scroll automatically over windows the mouse if hovering over. This is because of some other legacy software I need to use. Might be an element of the problem. I made sure that the keyboard setting is off but I want to clarify the problem is not side-scrolling but vertical scrolling. Or any other Admin please change the status to “Unresolved” or something because it is NOT FIXED. There is no setting or feature I can find that solves the problem. I don’t know if scrolling inactive windows would resolve the issue but that is a non-starter for me as I have two monitors with multiple windows open and as I am using the mouse wheel to scroll down I often move the mouse from monitor 1 to monitor 2 so the cursor isn’t in the way.

As is repeatedly mentioned, this behavior does not happen in any other program. It doesn’t happen in MS Word (cycling through open documents) or MS Excel (cycling through tabs) or MS Access (changing the active record). This frustration is clearly a step in code where the default changes to scroll through history instead of the page. If the user clicks on the page then the scroll wheel works as expected so it can’t be rocket science to change this. Find the code, add the remark character to skip over it, and then maybe people will get back to complaining websites aren’t compatible with the latest version of whatever browser they are using.

As it stands Edge is almost unworkable for anybody that navigates back and forth on a website that is more than 1 screen in length (e.g. New websites, MSN.com, Bing.com, etc.).

Oliver K. If this is really fixed, when do we get the fixed Version?

I’ve actual Edge App Version 42.17134.1.0, Microsoft EdgeHTML 17.17134 with 64bit Win10 v1803 and 2018-11 Update. Nothing has changed yet — the malfunction still persists. And again: This only happend, if you 1. Klick on the back arrow to go back in history and then 2.

Scrolling down directly with the mouse wheel. Klick the back arrow, then 2. Klick in the content and then 3. Scroll with the mouse wheel, the function will execute correct.