ElectronicNoobBlog

When running Windows 10 on an older Intel MacBook Air, one small annoyance becomes immediately obvious: the touchpad scrolling direction is reversed compared with macOS.

Windows uses the traditional scrolling direction, while macOS uses natural scrolling. Unfortunately, Windows 10 does not expose a simple setting for changing this on Apple’s built-in Multi-Touch hardware.

In my case, I was running Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 21H2 on a MacBook Air with Apple’s built-in Multi-Touch trackpad.

Finding the correct device

The first step is to identify the actual HID device used by the trackpad.

Open:

Device Manager -> Human Interface Devices -> Apple Multi-Touch -> Properties -> Details -> Hardware Ids

On my machine the relevant hardware ID was:

USB\VID_05AC&PID_0291&MI_02

The important part is:

VID_05AC&PID_0291&MI_02

05AC is Apple’s USB vendor ID. The device is exposed to Windows as an Apple Multi-Touch HID device.

Finding the registry path

The scrolling direction is controlled through a registry value called:

FlipFlopWheel

The relevant device is located below:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\HID

On my machine the complete registry path was:

HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\HID\VID_05AC&PID_0291&MI_02\7&31AA6F5B&0&0000\Device Parameters

The part:

7&31AA6F5B&0&0000

is the device instance ID and may be different on another installation.

Changing the scrolling direction

PowerShell must be started as Administrator.

I used this command:

New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\HID\VID_05AC&PID_0291&MI_02\7&31AA6F5B&0&0000\Device Parameters' -Name 'FlipFlopWheel' -PropertyType DWord -Value 1 -Force

This creates or changes the DWORD value:

FlipFlopWheel = 1

After restarting Windows, the touchpad scrolling direction should be reversed.

The result is the natural scrolling behaviour familiar from macOS:

Swipe up   -> content moves up
Swipe down -> content moves down

Why this is useful on a MacBook

This is particularly useful when Windows is installed natively on an Intel MacBook Air. The Apple Multi-Touch hardware works under Windows, but some of the macOS-specific behaviour is not exposed through the normal Windows Settings interface.

Instead of installing additional software just to reverse scrolling, the behaviour can be changed directly in the Windows registry.

Important note

The exact registry path is specific to the particular Windows installation and device instance.

Do not assume that:

7&31AA6F5B&0&0000

will be identical on another MacBook.

The safest approach is to find the Apple Multi-Touch device in Device Manager and inspect its Device Instance Path or Hardware IDs before changing the registry.