Why does the middle mousebutton behave so strange in firefox 4.0?
Since I upgraded to Firefox 4.0 from 3.6.** my middle mouse button behaves strange. When I press the middle mousebutton to scroll in a website and it happens that I release the mousebutton with the mouse over a link, the link gets opened in a new tab. The same happens with the links in my bookmarks toolbar. I am aware of the functionality of opening links in new tabs with the middle mousebutton, but in pre 4.0 versions of firefox if you wanted to open a link in a new tab, you had to hover the mouse over a link directly and specifically click it with the middle mousbutton. With 4.0 you can press the middle mousebutton anywhere on the website (even if there is no link), move the mouse around to scroll and then accidently release it over a link to have firefox open it in a new tab. This is very annoying i.e. if you want to scroll through a gallery with many pictures (that have links to bigger versions of themselves) and accidently releasing the middle mousebutton on a gallery image (with link) instead of some empty space. This way many new tabs that are not wanted get opened in the background. Additionally the functionality to just click the middle mousebutton to scroll and then click again to end scrolling is missing. You now have to keep the middle mousebutton pressed to scroll, which is a little annoying too if you want scroll through large websites/documents and have to keep the middle mousebutton pressed all the time.
All Replies (4)
Very odd. I tried all the functions you say you're having a problem with, but they all work correctly. For example, I don't have to press the middle mouse button at all to scroll: I can either simply move the wheel, or press once, move the mouse up or down slightly which will cause the page to scroll on its own.
Similarly, if I scroll by moving the wheel, but stop over a link, it doesn't launch in a new tab.
Neither can I get Firefox to launch a link from my bookmarks or history simply by scrolling alone.
I think it's probably caused by the fact that you're pressing the middle button while you scroll. That shouldn't be necessary unless you've changed Windows mouse settings in Control Panel.
Have you tried running Firefox in Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode ?
Hello Xircal! :)
"Very odd. I tried all the functions you say you're having a problem with, but they all work correctly. For example, I don't have to press the middle mouse button at all to scroll: I can either simply move the wheel, .... "
I can move the wheel too to scroll thats not the problem :)
" or press once, move the mouse up or down slightly which will cause the page to scroll on its own."
This I can't do anymore since the update :(
"Neither can I get Firefox to launch a link from my bookmarks or history simply by scrolling alone. "
It's only when I scroll by holding down the middle mouse button and release it when the cursor is hovering over a link/bookmark. And since it's the only way to scroll for me (except just using the wheel which is a little slower or the keyboard which I do not prefer) I get many new tabs if I just scroll inattentive and don't keep an eye for where my mouse cursor is located after I stop scrolling. : /
"I think it's probably caused by the fact that you're pressing the middle button while you scroll."
Yep ;) Sadly I can't just click the middle mousebutton anymore, let firefox scroll by just moving the mouse around and then just click the middle mousbutton again to stop the scrolling procedure.
"That shouldn't be necessary unless you've changed Windows mouse settings in Control Panel. "
I didn't change anything :( I have tried even a clean install now with all my user data deleted and Firefox safemode too with everything disabled.
"Have you tried running Firefox in Safe Mode ? "
I tried that :(
Thanks for the Help though! :)
Who makes your mouse? Is it a Logitech? If so, please see this post: http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=206293
Thank you very much for your help! I haven't got a Logitech mouse but I have a Razer mouse that has this "universal scrolling" thing too. I suspect that it is the same issue and have contacted the Razer support. Other mice without universal scroll work fine. I guess I just have to wait for a patch either for the Razer drivers of in FF itself.