When I load a webpage that is taller than my browser window, I expect to
see a scrollbar on the right - and usually do. However, an increasing
number of 'pages _don't_ have one - but I can scroll down by pressing
the downarrow or page-down keys. I presume this is script.

(FWIW my Chrome is "Version 109.0.5414.120 (Official Build) (32-bit)",
which I think is the last I can get.)

Two questions:

1. Is there any way to always have the scrollbar there - an add-on, a
setting, or whatever?

2. _Why_ do they do it anyway? (Or is it just a side-effect of something
else they want to do, and they don't realise?)

P. S.: the page that prompted me to ask the above (though it isn't the
first one) - https://bkwin.org/ - when I went back to it after composing
this post: now _does_ have a scrollbar!?! (With arrows, natch.)

Also:

Sometimes, on web pages the scrollbars change into very thin things that
are hard to hit - and, usually, lose the arrows at their ends. In some
cases, the behaviour seems to be very random: for example, on YouTube,
the "home page" - where I get just a pageful of suggestions - has the
skinny-rounded-no-arrows scrollbar, but - oh, I was going to say a
specific video has the normal ones, but now I'm looking it doesn't, but
_somewhere_ on YouTube does.

Again, same two questions:
1. Can I get the conventional scrollbars and arrows back (if so how),
and
2. Why do they do it?

(If the answer to both question 1s can be the same extension [assuming
they can't be done by settings, which I'd prefer], so much the better.)
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

"In the _car_-park? What are you doing there?" "Parking cars, what else does one
do in a car-park?" (First series, fit the fifth.)

In message <V20PAsUE7rZkFwy6@255soft.uk>, J. P. Gilliver
<G6JPG@255soft.uk> writes
>When I load a webpage that is taller than my browser window, I expect
>to see a scrollbar on the right - and usually do. However, an
>increasing number of 'pages _don't_ have one - but I can scroll down by
>pressing the downarrow or page-down keys. I presume this is script.
>
>(FWIW my Chrome is "Version 109.0.5414.120 (Official Build) (32-bit)",
>which I think is the last I can get.)

I see the same thing, though I'm on "Version 113.0.5672.127 (Official
Build) (32-bit)". I'm on Windows 10 rather than Windows 7, but I
wouldn't have expected that to affect the latest version of Chrome
that's available. My own Chrome updates itself automatically, but you
might want to try to force an update.

<snip bits I can't help with>

>
>Also:
>
>Sometimes, on web pages the scrollbars change into very thin things
>that are hard to hit
<snip>

Web pages with very thin vertical scrollbars annoy me too. I find that
when I try to scroll down my cursor is liable to stray outside the
scrollbar, so that instead of scrolling down I find that I've
highlighted some text.

<snip>
--
John Hall "[It was] so steep that at intervals the street broke into steps,
like a person breaking into giggles or hiccups, and then resumed
its sober climb, until it had another fit of steps."
Ursula K Le Guin "The Beginning Place"

In message <w5QcrCBrhzZkFw3k@jhall_nospamxx.co.uk> at Fri, 19 May 2023
09:50:51, John Hall <john_nospam@jhall.co.uk> writes
>In message <V20PAsUE7rZkFwy6@255soft.uk>, J. P. Gilliver
><G6JPG@255soft.uk> writes
>>When I load a webpage that is taller than my browser window, I expect
>>to see a scrollbar on the right - and usually do. However, an
>>increasing number of 'pages _don't_ have one - but I can scroll down
>>by pressing the downarrow or page-down keys. I presume this is script.
>>
>>(FWIW my Chrome is "Version 109.0.5414.120 (Official Build) (32-bit)",
>>which I think is the last I can get.)
>
>I see the same thing, though I'm on "Version 113.0.5672.127 (Official
>Build) (32-bit)". I'm on Windows 10 rather than Windows 7, but I
>wouldn't have expected that to affect the latest version of Chrome
>that's available. My own Chrome updates itself automatically, but you
>might want to try to force an update.

I think 109 is the latest that works with 7. Whenever I start it, I get
a message across the top of the window that says something like "to get
later versions of Chrome, upgrade to a later version of Windows".
>
><snip bits I can't help with>
>
>>
>>Also:
>>
>>Sometimes, on web pages the scrollbars change into very thin things
>>that are hard to hit
><snip>
>
>Web pages with very thin vertical scrollbars annoy me too. I find that
>when I try to scroll down my cursor is liable to stray outside the
>scrollbar, so that instead of scrolling down I find that I've
>highlighted some text.

Or worse: hit a button, or something outside the window.
>
><snip>
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Quantum particles: the dreams that stuff is made of - David Moser