Touchscreen tip: widen those scrollbars!

I often see forum questions around the TouchPack provided with official Origami devices. While the TouchPack is very useful, most of the enhancements it provides can be gained with a tweak in Windows XP. For example: I find the wider scroll bars extremely useful on my Samsung Q1 UMPC with the 7-inch display. They allow me to scroll up and down a little easier with my finger so that I don't need to pull out the stylus.

So what if you want a wider scrollbar? This simple tip works on non-touchscreen devices as well, but the true benefit is on the touchscreen, so if you've got an ultra-mobile or handheld device running Windows XP, you can increase the scrollbar width. Note: you don't need to be running the Tablet Edition of Windows XP to take advantage of this: touchscreen devices running XP will benefit as well.

Simply go to Display Properties (a right click on the desktop will get you started) and click the Appearance tab:
 

Once there, find and click the Advanced button to go to the Advanced Appearance settings:

In the Item dropdown, select the Scrollbar and set the width size to as many pixels as you like:

On my Q1, I set this to around 25 pixels. Click OK through the dialogs to save your settings and you're all set! You've got a wider scrollbar just like an Origami device!

Comments

[Steve]

Ahhh! The best tweak yet! And so simple!

[Gordon Cahill]

fantastic. just what I've been looking for for my UX. You really should start a category called "small screen tweaks" so you can gather all these great little thins into on easy to find place.

Gordon

[MiniMage]

I decided to do this, but it doesn't work for Firefox (or at least the theme I am using). I'm currently searching for a fix for this, but I'm afraid the scrollbar sizes might be determined by the theme. I hope I'm wrong.