The Hiding Bars
To maximize screen real estate and mimic a modern smartphone aesthetic, Ubuntu (via the GNOME desktop) uses “overlay scrollbars” by default. Instead of a thick, permanent grey bar on the right side of a window, the scrollbar is invisible until you move your mouse cursor near the edge of the screen. Even then, it appears as a very thin, semi-transparent sliver that only expands when directly hovered over. While visually clean, this is an ergonomic nightmare for users who prefer to physically click and drag a large scrollbar to navigate long documents, as it requires pinpoint precision just to make the interactive element appear.
Enforcing Permanent Scrollbars
To improve navigation ergonomics and disable the overlay scrollbars completely in Ubuntu, you must force the system to always display the traditional, thick scrollbar UI elements.
Unlike many modern settings, you must change this via a system command to ensure it applies globally to all GTK applications. Open your terminal by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T. You will use the gsettings command to modify the desktop environment’s behavior. Carefully type or paste the following command exactly as written: gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface overlay-scrolling false and press Enter. The command will execute silently without outputting a confirmation message, but the change is immediate. Open any application with a long list, like your file manager or settings app. You will see that the thin, hiding sliver has been permanently replaced by a solid, thick, and constantly visible scrollbar that is easy to grab with your mouse.