Scrolling in pdf viewer with touchscreen suddenly selects text. How to stop it?

Question

Scrolling in pdf viewer with touchscreen suddenly selects text. How to stop it?

RoxanneGauthier-9100 0

Whenever I'm annotating a pdf, I use my surface pro 5 as a "tablet" (not in tablet mode, I just remove the keyboard and write on the screen with a stylus)

I've been doing this for years.

For the last week or so, whenever I try scrolling with my stylus or my finger, instead of the pages scrolling, I'll be selecting text – not just a word, but whole paragraphs or pages. The only way for me to scroll using the touch screen now is to drag the scroll-bar. I can no longer scroll like you would on a phone for example, but only for pdf in edge. I can still do so when I'm browsing on edge or when I open a PDF in chrome/firefox. So the issue really seems to be with Edge's pdf viewer. I dont understand why this is happening. I've checked and my settings are so that I should do a long-press to be able to select text. It's a bit silly, but when you've done the same motions for years, it suddenly not working is very annoying.

Is this a bug? Or a new permanent feature?

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2 answers

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Answer 1

Vikki-T 5,445 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hi Roxanne,

I can understand why this feels frustrating, especially when the same pen/touch gesture has worked the same way for years and then suddenly behaves differently.

To help narrow this down, could you please check a few things for me?

Does this happen with all PDF files, or only with certain ones?
Did this start right after an Edge update, Windows update, or Surface firmware update?
If you open the same PDF in an InPrivate window, does touch scrolling still select text there as well?

In the meantime, please try these steps:

Check the current Edge version

Open Edge and go to edge://settings/help
Please let me know the full version shown there.

Test in InPrivate mode

Please open an InPrivate window and test the same PDF there.

Reset Edge experimental flags

Open edge://flags > Reset all
Restart Edge then test the PDF again.

While my initial response may not fully resolve the issue, I truly appreciate your cooperation as we work together toward identifying the most effective solution. Thank you so much for your understanding. Wishing you convenient experience going forward.

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

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Vikki-T 5,445 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-03-25T13:24:45.0733333+00:00

Hi Roxanne,

It has been a while and I am writing to see how things are going with this issue.

Have you had a chance to check the replies provided?

Any update would be appreciated.
RoxanneGauthier-9100 0 Reputation points

2026-04-12T17:27:27.1166667+00:00
Hi Vikki,

SO sorry for the late answer. I completely forgot about making this post until today, when I was reading a pdf and was getting annoyed with the same issue again. Here are the answers to your questions :

It happens with all PDFs files as far as I know, but only in the Edge viewer

I don't remember doing any update before it started. I did an Edge update today and the issue is still there.

The issue also happens in Edge InPrivate

My Edge version is 147.0.3912.60

I've tried edge://flags > Reset all but nothing has changed

Here is a picture of what happens

The entire text of a page will be selected when I try to scroll.

Thanks.
Vikki-T 5,445 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-04-14T12:59:33.4733333+00:00
Hi Roxanne,

Thank you for getting back to me, and I really appreciate you taking the time to test all those steps and share the details (and the screenshot as well).

As a temporary workaround, please continuing to open and annotate PDFs in another browser or a dedicated PDF app may help avoid the text‑selection issue while scrolling.

For more insight into this, you may also want to contact Microsoft Support directly. Please kindly follow these steps below:

Visit to this link: Contact - Microsoft Support

Select Get home support (choose your product from the drop down if needed)

Type your issue (use correct keyword to reach live chat support) > select Get help

Scroll down and find Contact Support

At the box Select your product or service

At the box Select your product category

After that you select Chat with a support agent in your web browser

Additionally, submitting feedback to the Edge team could be helpful in this case as well:

Open Edge

Go to Settings > Help and feedback > Send feedback

Include your Edge version, Surface model, and that touch/stylus scrolling in PDFs selects entire pages instead of scrolling

Wishing you a smoother PDF reading and annotation experience going forward.

Answer 2

The behavior described is specific to the PDF reader in Microsoft Edge and is not a general Windows or Surface touch issue.

From the available information, Edge’s built‑in PDF reader supports:

Viewing and interacting with PDFs, including form fields and highlights
Keyboard navigation, high contrast, and screen readers

However, there is no documented setting in the provided material that controls whether a touch or pen gesture scrolls versus selects text in Edge’s PDF viewer, nor any note of a recent change or bug that alters this behavior.

Because the same touch gestures still scroll correctly in:

Web pages in Edge, and
PDFs opened in Chrome/Firefox,

the issue is isolated to Edge’s PDF component. With the current information, there is no supported toggle or fix documented to revert the PDF touch behavior in Edge.

A practical workaround, based on the context, is to:

Open the PDF in another browser (such as Chrome/Firefox) where touch scrolling still behaves as expected, or
Use another PDF application that supports pen/touch scrolling in the way required.

If this is a regression or design change in Edge’s PDF reader, it is not covered in the provided documentation, so the only supported path from this context is to use an alternative viewer for now.

References:

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Scrolling in pdf viewer with touchscreen suddenly selects text. How to stop it?

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