I’d imagine everyone knows about a mouse’s scroll wheel’s main function, but did you know the scroll wheel also acts as a third (middle) clickable mouse button?
You can perform a number of handy operations using the scroll wheel. Here then are six useful functions using the mouse’s scroll wheel:
Quickly Open a New Instance
With most open programs and folders, you can open a new instance by middle-clicking the icon in the Taskbar. Especially useful for browsers and File Explorer.
Close Windows From Taskbar
You can also use the middle-click button to close open windows. If you have multiple instances of the same app or folder open, move your mouse cursor to the Taskbar to display the thumbnails and then middle-click each thumbnail that you want to close.
Open Links In New Tab
Instead of right-clicking a link and selecting “Open in a new tab“, you can simply middle-click the link, and it will automatically open in a new tab. Also works with bookmarks and online images.
Open Previous/Next Page In A New Tab
Middle-click the browser’s back and forward buttons to open the previous or next page in a new tab. This is particularly useful if you want to navigate backwards and/or forwards without losing the current page.
Auto-Scroll In Browser
Instead of rolling the scroll wheel to scroll up and down webpages, click the scroll wheel and then slightly move the new mouse cursor up and down to scroll automatically. Movement is minimal, and the scrolling speed is quite easy to control.
Ctrl + Scroll To Change The Size Of Icons
The View settings when you right-click inside a folder provide a good range of icon sizes – from small through to extra large – but sometimes those default sizes just don’t quite cut it. Pressing the Ctrl button while scrolling will let you fine-tune icon sizes.
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