Forum Discussion
Two finger scrolling is getting detected as a click - Discussion
We’ve seen a lot of feedback around touchpad scrolling being either extremely fast or randomly right-clicking and wanted to let you know that we hear you and we’re investigating. At this point we believe the issue to be driver-related and are working with the appropriate driver developers to help root cause the precise issue and determine possible fixes.
Getting into more details it appears to be related to Synaptics trackpads on HP and Lenovo devices and we’ve confirmed that comparing Microsoft Edge to Chrome on an HP device specifically showed that Microsoft Edge was getting 2-3x the scroll delta Chrome was getting. We haven’t explicitly seen the context menu being more sensitive (even testing on a device that reportedly had the issue) but during testing noticed that because of the extreme scroll, attempting to stop the scroll with 2 fingers to slow it down could cause the context menu to open at the end of the scroll. Overall it appears Microsoft Edge isn’t receiving the same functionality as Chrome, most likely due to having a different process name.
While we’re following up with our partners at Synaptics we’re also investigating possible workarounds we can do in Microsoft Edge to address the issue as a workaround, longer-term having driver workarounds in the browser isn’t ideal but we want to do right by our customers and are considering all options to do so.
Hey everyone!
We wanted to give an update on this issue as we've made some progress but before we do that we have a slight update to the original statement: We no longer believe Lenovo is impacted at all by this issue and instead believe it's exclusive to a subset of HP devices with Synaptics trackpads. Now on to the update!
We've finally reproduced the exact issue on a device and were able to determine the cause, we no longer believe this is due to the scroll delta issue. To get into specifics the driver was detecting the new Microsoft Edge as the old Microsoft Edge and sending touch input to the browser. Chromium's gesture recognizer handled the touch input differently from the old Microsoft Edge browser and this resulted in the context menu opening after a two-finger scroll. The reason this wasn't happening in other Chromium-based browsers was due to the driver specifically targeting Microsoft Edge, other browsers instead receive mouse wheel events when scrolling using the trackpad.
Between two separate fixes we've made, we now believe we've mitigated this such that the new Microsoft Edge will receive the same mouse wheel input as other Chromium-based browsers. This means that touch-based gestures will no longer work on these trackpads, but we believe overall this is the right direction for compatibility as we will behave similarly to other Chromium-based browsers. These changes are in today's Canary build (81.0.406.0). The first change specifically ignores the exact set of inputs we were receiving from the driver, while the second change, made for unrelated reasons, changes the window title to no longer include "Microsoft Edge"; the latter also broke the driver's recognition. We're already in the process of implementing the fixes in the Beta channel so that when Stable updates to 80 it will also have this fix.
Longer term we do plan to remove the mitigation that specifically ignores the bad set of inputs as we do know this creates another issue where you can't open the context menu on the first two-finger tap after a two-finger scroll on impacted devices. We instead are working on either a shim in-product or in Windows 10 to fix the issue while we also work longer-term to get the drivers updated. We know that Windows updates and driver updates aren't the perfect fix as any user who doesn't receive them would be stuck with this issue, so we're trying to find a good way to work around this in the product but know that may not be possible.
If you're experiencing other issues related to scrolling please continue to file feedback as we use that feedback to analyze and resolve issues.
- Clay_MartinMicrosoft
Hey everyone!
We wanted to give an update on this issue as we've made some progress but before we do that we have a slight update to the original statement: We no longer believe Lenovo is impacted at all by this issue and instead believe it's exclusive to a subset of HP devices with Synaptics trackpads. Now on to the update!
We've finally reproduced the exact issue on a device and were able to determine the cause, we no longer believe this is due to the scroll delta issue. To get into specifics the driver was detecting the new Microsoft Edge as the old Microsoft Edge and sending touch input to the browser. Chromium's gesture recognizer handled the touch input differently from the old Microsoft Edge browser and this resulted in the context menu opening after a two-finger scroll. The reason this wasn't happening in other Chromium-based browsers was due to the driver specifically targeting Microsoft Edge, other browsers instead receive mouse wheel events when scrolling using the trackpad.
Between two separate fixes we've made, we now believe we've mitigated this such that the new Microsoft Edge will receive the same mouse wheel input as other Chromium-based browsers. This means that touch-based gestures will no longer work on these trackpads, but we believe overall this is the right direction for compatibility as we will behave similarly to other Chromium-based browsers. These changes are in today's Canary build (81.0.406.0). The first change specifically ignores the exact set of inputs we were receiving from the driver, while the second change, made for unrelated reasons, changes the window title to no longer include "Microsoft Edge"; the latter also broke the driver's recognition. We're already in the process of implementing the fixes in the Beta channel so that when Stable updates to 80 it will also have this fix.
Longer term we do plan to remove the mitigation that specifically ignores the bad set of inputs as we do know this creates another issue where you can't open the context menu on the first two-finger tap after a two-finger scroll on impacted devices. We instead are working on either a shim in-product or in Windows 10 to fix the issue while we also work longer-term to get the drivers updated. We know that Windows updates and driver updates aren't the perfect fix as any user who doesn't receive them would be stuck with this issue, so we're trying to find a good way to work around this in the product but know that may not be possible.
If you're experiencing other issues related to scrolling please continue to file feedback as we use that feedback to analyze and resolve issues.
- amswitzerBrass Contributor
Thanks for the update. Many of us have resolved this issue by removing the distributed Synapatics drivers from our machines and changing them for the Synaptics Windows Precision TouchPad drivers, which is what we should have gotten automatically from HP anyway.
Since our Trackpads are working just fine now, will this fix working its way through the various steps break our working machines? I certainly hope I won't be right back in the position I was in before with Edge being useless.
By the way, I'm not sure I understood. Did you mean that in Canary when the fix is put in, the Trackpad won't work at all? That's what it seems to be saying.
- Clay_MartinMicrosoft>Since our Trackpads are working just fine now, will this fix working its way through the various steps break our working machines?
No, this will only mitigate machines that have the impacted drivers installed
>Did you mean that in Canary when the fix is put in, the Trackpad won't work at all?
No, this fix will allow machines with the impacted driver installed to work properly.
- pkillpeersCopper Contributor
Reporting from an HP OMEN Laptop with synaptic drivers, all up to date.
chromium Version 80.0.361.50 (Official build) (64-bit), i'm now proud to say... the issue is: GONE
- neilhobbs76Brass Contributor
Clay_Martin Elliot Kirk that is good news on the extra click issue - I am waiting for the fixes to appear in the Stable channel...
What I wanted to ask about again... do you have any fixes for the zoom issue when I do a two-finger scroll down and my screen looks like this...
This is my screen following scrolling down with two fingers, as you can see Edge is saying this is 100% zoom... but it is clearly not.
- Clay_MartinMicrosoftWe believe that's related to the trackpad sending touch input and are hoping it also goes away when it starts sending mouse wheel input instead. On the devices that we have that reproduced the issue we didn't notice it after we applied the mitigation.
- JWeimanCopper Contributor
Elliot Kirk I did a clean reinstall of my HP Spectre X360 a few weeks ago, and that fixed the issues for me..
- JWeimanCopper Contributor
Bloody hell! I switched from Edge Dev to the released version and now it happens again 😞 😞
As I wrote earlier the problem disappeared after a full reinstall, but now it's back. So annoying.
Edit: Reinstalled Edge Dev and thankfully it is still working properly. So the problem exists in the official build (79.0.309.71) but not in the Dev channel (81.0.396.0), at least for me.
- amswitzerBrass Contributor
JWeiman: It shouldn't come as a surprise. The release notes and logs for the Dev version indicates that this item has been on the bug list for four months and the fix is labelled as "planned" with no implementation date. That means MS acknowledges the bug is there and will look into it. It's never been resolved. I've been able to work around it by rolling-back my drivers to the 2017 version for Win 10. Doing so also means that the Control Panel tab for Touchpad control is once again showing up. But the bug is there and still not fixed in any version of Edge at this point.
- amswitzerBrass Contributor
I'm hoping you'll have this issue resolved before you go live, but I suspect not. It really puzzles me as to how this issue seems to be driver-related, but is restricted to Chromium Edge -- it's not an issue with any other browser, nor on any other app including any other MS app.
This issue impacts the user experience so severely that it forces me to avoid Edge until it's resolved. It's a totally frustrating and unpleasant experience due to the alternative menu pop-ups all of the time. Many HP and Lenovo laptops users won't be able to use Edge.
Please fix this nonsense already. This is just nuts.
- pneenkoalabearSteel ContributorMy laptop didn't come with PTP drivers and I disliked the Synaptics drivers so I installed the PTP drivers from Lenovo (not my laptop manufacturer and worked fine for me). https://www.windowscentral.com/how-enable-precision-touchpad-drivers.
just a warning: Windows Central is hella slow without an adblocker
and a second warning: it may not work so just read everything through. the first drivers worked fine for me. Every feature update of W10 however updated the drivers so I had to reinstall the first drivers. - DeletedSeems like this issue has been fixed in Version 81.0.381.0 (Official build) dev (64-bit) as of today.
- neilhobbs76Brass Contributor
Elliot Kirk I am running Version 79.0.309.63 (Official build) beta (64-bit) and it's a massively bad user experience... I also scroll down and the web page zooms in to about 300%+
Is this going to be fixed in the full release on Wednesday - the 15th of January?
- pneenkoalabearSteel ContributorDo you have a PTP?
- remisharrockCopper Contributor
just tried with dev version 81.0.381.0 and still have the same problem, any ETA ?
I have a HP Spectre x360 and my synaptics drivers just updated today.
I tried with Synaptics drivers versions 15.5.10.75 and also 15.5.35.47 and 15.5.35.48 (I had this one with sdi-tool.org)
thanks for investigating this
- Alexander JacubowskyCopper ContributorPlease also use three finger tap for zoom
- neilhobbs76Brass Contributor
Elliot Kirk I have just migrated to the Stable Channel (uninstalled the Beta, rebooted the laptop and then installed the Stable release)... I am now running Version 79.0.309.68 (Official build) (64-bit)
Both the right-click/Context menu and the two-finger zooming issues are still happening... I am running the latest Synaptics version 19.5.35.42 driver (this got updated through Windows Update - please see below), which I am not going to downgrade or replace with another driver... I am expecting Microsoft to resolve this. These issues only happen with Edge. You have acknowledged these issues...
UPDATE: Following installing the above Edge Stable browser, Windows Update installed the version 19.5.35.50 and the issues are still present. Microsoft is issuing new drivers... is this part of this investigation?
Can I ask for an ETA for the build of Edge which resolves these issues?
- amswitzerBrass Contributor
I'm not a MIcrosoft person, but on the latest DEV release notes, they indicate that this issue has been on their list for 15 weeks and is in the "planner" phase, meaning they will look at it, but haven't yet.
I'm in the same position as you and I'm rather surprised that MS released this when this bug will impact a lot of HP laptop users.
- neilhobbs76Brass Contributor
Elliot Kirk Can you also confirm that you are looking at the issue where in Edge a user performs a two-finger scroll down and the webpage is zoomed in on? The following is my screen when I have just done this...
As you'll see from the above, Edge is set at 100% zoom and what is displayed within the browser is way about 150% zoom... Can you comment on this?