Download (Windows 2000 and later): wheeler-1.04-setup.exe (426 KB)

Wheeler is a free program that enhances the behavior of your mouse wheel. Wheeler allows you to point and roll, that is, point at a window, roll the wheel, and scroll that window. This sounds only natural, but the Windows default behavior is to ignore the window you're pointing to and scroll whichever window currently has the keyboard focus, that is, the window that currently accepts keyboard input. Microsoft's Intellipoint software used to address this problem, but current versions do not, and like Windows itself, Intellipoint now requires you to click in a window before you can scroll it with the wheel. For us point-and-rollers, this is an intolerable step backwards, and since newer Microsoft mice actually require the current Intellipoint to function correctly, it became necessary to write Wheeler.

Wheeler is a highly configurable program. Here are some highlights:

• In addition to scrolling the window under the cursor when you roll the mouse wheel, it's possible to move the keyboard focus to that window, which is what Intellipoint used to do, and which programs similar to Wheeler tend not to support.
• Through the concept of wheelability, you can control how wheel messages are processed on a per window class basis. Scoped window classes allow you to associate window class names with the specific programs that define them, so you don't have to worry about affecting other programs that may unwittingly use the same window class names. Creation of Window Class Rules is easily accomplished by using the Wheeler Configuration program.
• You can translate wheel messages into scrollbar messages, which can improve the behavior of a number of window classes, including the Windows Richedit and Outlook 2003 Supergrid.
• You can exclude entire programs from the Wheeler treatment.

Click here for a couple of screenshots of Wheeler Configuration. Note that Wheeler runs only under Windows 2000 and later versions of Windows.