Vertical scrolling sensitivity with the mouse wheel keeps being reset in the background. How do i figure out what is changing it?

Question

This problem is solved temporarily by manually resetting it to 1, my desired value. I have multiple hid devices and the machine is an asus rog 14 2022 laptop with ati graphics. I am running windows 11. I use a Kensington trackball, and also an android phone as a touchpad, in addition to the built in touchpad. Additionally there are other things installed that could be making changes. I've currently settled on reseting it manually several times a day but that is obviously suboptimal. I also have the logitech MX mechanical keyboard and a Steam controller. There is also software to virtually use the computer from my Meta Oculus Rift 2. Yes, alot is going on, I know.

The app I use on android is Unified Remote. I've set this to the lowest value for mouse scroll sensitivity. I believe the problem predates using it. Also I was using my Kensington Expert mouse prior to installing the Kensington works software and believe the issue predates that as well.

I set the sensitivity of windows notifying me of any changes to my computer to maximum but it does not notify me of this change. Also the change is not reflected in the control panel if I leave it open. I reset it by setting to to something other than 1 and then back to 1. This fixes the problem every time for more than 5 minutes but maybe under an hour. I would prefer to use others' experiences, log analysis or an enhanced logging of running processes and the this setting to discover the problem. Any tools suggestions would be great.

I do not see value in reinstalling every driver and application because I suspect that it might be intended behavior and also use many different applications. It's clear that either windows stores the value in more than one place itself or some driver or program is resetting it periodically to a different setting. I am adept enough to control what is running less bluntly than uninstalling and reinstalling applications one by one and that is not an approach I have time for. If you recommend this please explain why it's the best use of my time as well or it will be rejected and down-voted.

Please no scatter-shot answers. I am looking for advice for this problem which is more about a windows setting changing in the background than mouse scrolling.
Thanks !

Answer 1

Normally, the Registry setting is in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Mouse\WheelScrollLines, but it might be in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WheelScrollLines or elsewhere, depending on hardware and drivers. If you restrict Permissions to the key, Mouse, Desktop, or other (regrettably, one cannot change Permissions on a value, AFAIK), to Read only, including Child objects, it would lock all the settings under that key. N.B. That may cause undesirable side effects, e.g., locking other Control Panel settings, so be sure you know how to revert ownership to SYSTEM should there be an issue.

To determine the actual value in use, use a tool such as Nirsoft's RegistryChangesView,

• Make a "snapshot" of the Registry with vertical scrolling sensitivity set appropriately (i.e., 1).
• Make a snapshot of the Registry with vertical scrolling sensitivity set incorrectly (e.g., 2).
• Compare the two snapshots, using the tool, above.
• Find the particular value that changed, right-click on the parent key and set Permissions appropriately. Likely you will also need to change ownership, first.