Scroll Bar width in Thunderbird

[art3030]

Please fix the skinny scroll bars in Thunderbird.  I have tried everything in the about:config to no avail.  I can't go on with them having a thin width.  And keep them visible.

[kshufjkshdfukhs]

I use Linux Mint Cinnamon. Most software adopts my settings for scroll bar width. I like wide scrollbars, easy to click and drag.

Thunderbird ignores those settings and has uncomfortably narrow ones.

Please either let us change the scrollbar settings, or (even better) just use the ones set in an OS.

[Jon]

(Note: similar ideas have been merged into this thread)

[mcswell]

Agreed.  I'm on a desktop, not a phone.  I want visible scrollbars that I can click on with my mouse.  Scroll wheels are just too slow. 

Also, I don't want them to disappear when I don't mouse over them--I want to be able to see how far down a message I've scrolled since I often use the spacebar to scroll, and when I get to the end of a message, I don't want to move on to the next unread message, which may be way down the stack--I may want to delete the current message, or open it, or reply to it, or whatever.  If I can see the scrollbar without mousing it, then I have more control.

[DaveLeeNC]

For those of you wanting to fix this issue with the Windows 11 Settings app but don't often use this app.....

1) Type 'Settings' in the Search Bar

2) Open the Settings App

3) Click on Accessibility 

4) Click on Visual Effects 

5) Turn on Always Show Scrollbars (I am surprised that the default is off) 

dave

[dwmusic]

Same here. The tendency towards making such important tools skinnier and skinnier is incomprehensible to me. Why make software harder and harder to navigate? My scroll bar is so skinny I cannot click on it at all (view screenshot attached), so I have to use the scrollwheel on the mouse instead. When I attempt to click the button in the scroll bar, the horizontal resizing tool pops up instead. This thread has been up for two years now, so it looks to me as though no-one is taking any notice. Is there some other way to communicate this and other issues directly to the Development Team instead of merely commiserating on the forum?

[mcswell]

@dwmusic: There is a way to fix the scrollbar width, which works in TBird and most (all?) other apps in Windows 11 (I just tried it, don't forget to log out or restart to make your change take effect):

https://www.groovypost.com/howto/make-scroll-bars-wider-in-windows-11/

I set mine to -700 just to make sure it works, and it does.  I prefer a number around -165 or -180, but ymmv.  

Another way to adjust this is to use Winaero Tweaker (freeware program).  'Under Advanced Appearance Settings'/Scrollbar are two adjustments, one to set the scrollbar width, the other the size of the scrollbar "buttons" size.  I'm not totally clear what adjusting the button size does, but the Scrollbar Width sounds like what you're asking for.  I forget what setting I had before I tweaked it with Regedit, but I think the number was like 30.  (There's no clear mapping between the number in Winaero Tweaker and in Regedit, afaict.)

[mcswell]

@dwmusic: There is a way to fix the scrollbar width, which works in TBird and most (all?) other apps in Windows 11 (I just tried it, don't forget to log out or restart to make your change take effect):

https://www.groovypost.com/howto/make-scroll-bars-wider-in-windows-11/

I set mine to -700 just to make sure it works, and it does.  I prefer a number around -165 or -180, but ymmv.  

Another way to adjust this is to use Winaero Tweaker (freeware program).  'Under Advanced Appearance Settings'/Scrollbar are two adjustments, one to set the scrollbar width, the other the size of the scrollbar "buttons" size.  I'm not totally clear what adjusting the button size does, but the Scrollbar Width sounds like what you're asking for.  I forget what setting I had before I tweaked it with Regedit, but I think the number was like 30.  (There's no clear mapping between the number in Winaero Tweaker and in Regedit, afaict.)

[mcswell]

@dwmusic  I tried to post a fix to this, but it's not showing up.  Not sure if that's an intentional delay.  The easy fix is to use Winaereo Tweaker.  Let me know if this doesn't show up, and I'll try re-posting.

[heynah2]

Windows 11 Settings always ON, & then Regedit works for me, as published in

https://www.groovypost.com/howto/make-scroll-bars-wider-in-windows-11/

thank you mcswell

[dwmusic]

Is there a solution for macOS? I am running Sonoma 14.3.

[cnckeith]

Please fix the skinny scroll bars in Thunderbird.  I have tried everything in the about:config to no avail.  I can't go on with them having a thin width. 

[mcswell]

I don't know about the macOS setting, but @cnckeith in Windows 11 the fix is in Windows itself, not in TBird, which just defaults to the Windows setting.  See Weqas' ‎04-10-2023 11:16 PM post for the fix to the disappearing scrollbars, and my ‎01-29-2024 06:19 PM post for the fix to the skinny bars.

[dwmusic]

Notice the skinny scrollbar to the right of the image

[Agentvirtuel]

Hello

Take a look
https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/how-to-increase-the-width-of-the-vertical-scroll-bar/m-p/...

Config Editor
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/config-editor
Search a preference widget.non-native-theme.win.scrollbar.use-system-size
Double-click on the preference to set its value to false

Search a preference widget.non-native-theme.scrollbar.size.override
Double-click on the preference, enter a new value, 30, for example

[dwmusic]

Thanks,  Agentvirtuel

I carried out the steps as per screenshots attached, and restarted Thunderbird to make sure the edits were recorded but the scrollbars look the same skinny width, as per screenshot.

What do you suppose these edits were actually changing? I could not see any difference in the GUI at all after making them.

Set scrollbar size to 30Override system scrollbar sizeSkinny scrollbars persist