Microsoft Edge utilizes a feature called “Smooth Scrolling” to make navigating long web pages visually pleasing. Instead of the screen instantly snapping down a few lines when you turn your mouse wheel or press the spacebar, the browser animates the movement, causing the page to glide smoothly. While this looks great on modern hardware, it can cause severe performance issues, input lag, or visual stuttering on low-end virtual machines, older laptops, or remote desktop (RDP) sessions. Furthermore, some users simply prefer the instant, deterministic feedback of immediate scrolling.
This guide explains how to completely disable the smooth scrolling animation system-wide in Microsoft Edge.
Disable Smooth Scrolling via Edge Flags
Because smooth scrolling is an experimental rendering feature deeply integrated into the Chromium engine, it cannot be disabled in the standard Settings menu. You must access the hidden “Flags” menu to turn it off.
- Open Microsoft Edge.
- Click into the URL address bar at the top of the browser.
- Type the following exactly as written and press Enter:
edge://flags/#smooth-scrolling - You will be taken to the Experiments page, and the specific setting for Smooth Scrolling will be highlighted in yellow at the top of the list.
- Look to the right of the setting name. You will see a drop-down menu currently set to “Default”.
- Click the drop-down menu and change it to Disabled.
- A banner will appear at the very bottom of your screen stating that your changes will take effect the next time you restart Microsoft Edge.
- Click the blue Restart button in that banner.
Verify the Change
When the browser re-opens, the rendering engine will have dropped the animation entirely.
To verify the change, open a very long article (like a Wikipedia page). Rotate the scroll wheel on your mouse one “click” downwards. The page should instantly snap down a few lines without any gliding or sliding animation. Pressing the Page Down or Spacebar keys will also result in an instantaneous screen jump. This instantly eliminates any rendering lag associated with scrolling in heavy web applications.