In C++, how can I programmatically detect the reverse scrolling setting on Windows?

Question

Specifically I want to determine the state of the Windows setting for Mouse / Touchpad -> "Reverse scrolling direction" (which defaults to off). Ideally this would be extracted from the event data but a falling back to querying the current OS state would be sufficient. I wasn't able to find either solution in the MSDN documentation.

Note: That setting is only available in the mouse / trackpad settings on Windows 8 or Windows 10 and only if you have a precise scrolling device (like a Surface Pro 3).

Answer 1

I know of a few "standard" or "official" approaches to getting system information.

• GetSystemMetrics
• SystemParametersInfo
• WMI

If none of these work and you can't find info in MSDN, then @Steve314's suggestion of checking the registry is probably the way to go. One approach to identifying the correct registry key:

1. Open the Mouse / Touchpad control panel and get ready to change the setting.
2. Download and run Process Monitor.
3. Change the setting in the Mouse / Touchpad control panel.
4. Search for RegSetValue calls in Process Monitor's output to try and find the one that corresponds to the setting you care about.

Answer 2

I wasn't able to find the scrolling direction via the other suggestions, but I was able to find the registry key using the Process Monitor suggestion. The registry key is: HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\PrecisionTouchPad\ScrollDirection

Thanks!