How does one make the scrollbars on a Google Chrome window stay there, and not hide until hovered over?

My father is 91 and losing his dexterity. I have him on a chromebook since all he does is use the web. His days of being able to use it are slowly winding down.

Some recent update of Chrome now hides the vertical scroll bars in a window and when hovered over, the line for the scroll bar is very thin until you actually click on it - THEN it becomes wider. My dad does not have this dexterity. They used to be persistent and wider and this was not an issue.

I have done some research and it seems there is a chrome flag to set, but it is telling me his account does not have permission to change. His google Id is his sbcglobal.net email address. When I go into Chrome flags using my free gmail account on his chromebook, I can see and edit them, but it will not affect his profile.

thoughts?

Show him where to find the arrow keys?

yeah, well its complicated with his dexterity and how he has to sit up to the keyboard. It's way more complicated than you think so I ruled that out awhile back. I have him *almost* keyboard-less and using voice dictation more, so my next challenge is see if voice dictation for screen nav will work....not sure yet. I am also 3 hours away from him so cannot sit with him and try things out which makes it harder.

2 things to consider -

1 touch screen finger scroll

2. Use the mouse wheel. It's for scrolling…

You may find an addon, or simply ask ChatGPT

Scroll wheel 100%. If he can click and drag to scroll, he can use the scroll wheel. If the action of the wheel is the problem, get a mouse with the secondary buttons above and below the wheel that are used for scrolling by clicking them.

You can also try messing with the zoom level in the browser to see if that helps fix the bar size but i doubt it.

Also try launching the browser in admin mode. Right click, run as administrator using his profile. See if you can change the flags then.

Check if his operating system is in S mode. Removing that may allow you to change the flags too. That garbage mode causes so many issues.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-10-and-windows-11-in-s-mode-faq-851057d6-1ee9-b9e5-c30b-93baebeebc85

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Scroll wheel 100%. If he can click and drag to scroll, he can use the scroll wheel

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no, he can't use the scroll wheel. Clicking and dragging is hard enough, but scroll wheel definitely out.

I assume you know the 2-finger scroll on the trackpad--by far the easiest option for anyone using a laptop, in my opinion

Doesn't have the dexterity or control to use a trackpad. Have him in external keyboard and mouse. It's his only option right now. Mouse is only possible because he can control it with his whole arm.

Essentially all his tabs he uses are always open and present it's just a real chore to do any navigation. Checking email is an hour exercise but now with limited scrolling things are getting really troubling

I asked ChatGPT, and it replied:

To make scroll bars always visible in Google Chrome, the method depends on your operating system, as Chrome follows system-wide settings for scrollbar visibility.



For macOS (Ventura, Monterey, Big Sur, etc.):
1. Open System Settings (or System Preferences on older macOS versions).
2. Go to Appearance (or General on older macOS).
3. Find the option for "Show scroll bars".
4. Choose "Always".

Path: System Settings > Appearance > Show scroll bars > Always

This will force scroll bars to appear in Chrome and most other apps.



For Windows 11:
1. Open Settings.
2. Go to Accessibility > Visual effects.
3. Turn off the toggle for "Always hide scrollbars".

Path: Settings > Accessibility > Visual effects > Always hide scrollbars



For Windows 10:
1. Open Settings.
2. Go to Ease of Access > Display.
3. Find "Automatically hide scroll bars in Windows" and turn it off.



For Linux:

Scrollbar behavior can vary by distro and window manager (like GNOME, KDE). Check system settings or tweak CSS in Chrome with extensions like Stylus.

It's a Chromebook so it looks like chatGPT didn't include Chrome OS…will hit up Gemini and see what it can gather up for me

It might help if you fully describe his setup and how he uses it so you don't have people referring options that aren't possible for him.

If you push down on the central scroll wheel it will click and the single mouse pointer changes to a UP & DOWN ARROW, then when you move the mouse, the whole screen will scroll.

Click the click wheel again, and it changes back to a mouse pointer.

Edit: This is on Win 10 & 11, Not sure if applies to Chromebook

like i said this is a very difficult situation. He is in a wheel chair, and sits parallel to his desk so that his left arm is on the desk. He operates the mouse in this fashion as best he can. He has limited mobility, his dexterity is almost non-existent, so we are on the last leg of him being able to use a computer it seems.

The best I can describe is - you know sometimes you wake up and you have slept on your shoulder or arm and it is completely asleep? Now - take that and try to navigate your mouse. That is what we are dealing with.

to be fair, my original question was just about how to make the scroll bars persistent in google chrome, not necessarily what are the various options one has to scroll...so while I appreciate all the suggestions about various ways to scroll - that was not the question. i've been through all the other possibilities. One of the latest updates to ChromeOS/Chrome has rendered these scroll bars to only be visible when you mouse over them, and even then they are skinny as hell. THAT is the issue.

I'm looking into some voice navigation, which is the next challenge. We finally got him an Alexa a number of years ago so he can ask it questions about the weather, sports, news, listen to music - control things this way. I am now starting to see this need to be able to navigate a web page. He just wants to read the FWST - can't do it with a real paper, and needs to scroll online - that's my issue.

No answers, Cap City, but I feel for you. It's a real challenge trying to help older people navigate technology. I hope you find something that works for your dad.