How Can I Speed Up My Computer Scrolling?

There are plenty of computer tricks you can use to get more done in less time, from reopening closed tabs to permanently deleting files without ever hitting the recycle bin. But the one thing people are consistently surprised to learn is how they can speed up tracking, scrolling, and double-clicking on their trackpads on macOS Big Sur or Windows 11.

You may not think you’d have any control over how fast or slow your cursor moves across a screen, but you’d be surprised. Both macOS and Windows have a few options to help you speed up your scrolling and make it more accurate, and there are even a few ways you can change the default settings on a mouse or touchpad that will make it faster as well.

The first step to speeding up your scrolling is to open the “Control Panel” from the “Start” menu. Once you’re in, type “keyboard” into the top-right search panel. A list of all of your keyboard’s options will be displayed, including a window called “Keyboard Properties.” If you are using a laptop, you can also find this option in the System Preferences, which is accessible from the Dock and the Cmd + W keyboard shortcut.

In the “Keyboard Properties” window, move the slider for Repeat rate: to the right to increase the scroll speed of your up and down arrows. You can also adjust the number of lines to scroll each time you roll the mouse wheel by clicking in the box next to it and entering a numeric value that suits you.

Finally, if you are using a laptop or other device with a trackpad, click the button labeled Advanced in the bottom-right corner to open a new window with additional mouse settings. This is where you can turn off the feature that allows your cursor to scroll down automatically when you hover over inactive windows on a desktop computer. You can also adjust the “Choose how many lines to scroll each time” slider to set the number of lines you want your mouse wheel to scroll with each click, though it is recommended that you keep this number low.