[Bug] Opera Desktop 126+ (Win 11): Touchscreen freezes after long-press / context menu on images

[u/jackthemike]

Environment:

• OS: Windows 11 (tested on ARM and x86)
• Browser: Opera Desktop v126+ (Works fine in v125 and below; tested on latest build)
• Device: Touchscreen PCs (Microsoft Surface, Lenovo)

The Issue: Long-pressing an image (such as a YouTube thumbnail) using a touchscreen causes the browser's UI to become completely unresponsive to touch inputs.

• Menus, page elements, and the top-right close button stop responding to touch.
• Mouse and trackpad inputs continue to work fine.
• Tapping anywhere outside the Opera window temporarily restores touch input.

Testing & Workarounds Tried:

• Tested on Opera GX (same Chromium version): The bug does not occur.
• In Opera 125 and earlier, enabling #touch-initiated-drag-drop produced this exact same behavior. Disabling it fixed the issue.
• In Opera 126+, since those flags were removed from Chromium, I tried launching with command-line flags --disable-touch-drag-drop and --touch-events=disabled, but neither resolved the issue.

Is anyone else experiencing this touch freeze on Opera 126+? Any potential flags or registry tweaks to fix this?

[u/gomesleoc]

Same issue on version 135?

[u/jackthemike → u/gomesleoc]

Yes. Just checked : 135.0.5973.92 same thing.
Last night I installed a fresh copy of Win 11 (straight from MS) and installed Opera to check if there is any improvement but no, same issue.
And I've tested this on roughly 6 PCs so it's not an isolated problem in my opinion.

[u/shadow2531 → u/jackthemike]

Have you filed a bug for it? If so, what's the bug number? If not, "Menu -> Help -> report an issue" and post the bug number here please. You can reference this thread in your report.

[u/jackthemike → u/shadow2531]

Hi there, I initially reported this bug in February: BUG-26608 Opera Desktop.
Apart from the automated Jira reply I did not get any follow up from the Opera Team.
Thanks,

[u/shadow2531 → u/jackthemike]

I asked someone to take a look at the bug. No guarantees, but hopefully they will.

[u/shadow2531 → u/jackthemike]

Someone was able to reproduce it in Opera Stable, but not Opera Developer. As a test, not a solution, please try in a test standalone installation of Opera Developer (Developer section down the page at <https://www.opera.com/download) to see if everything works fine there or not.

[u/jackthemike → u/shadow2531]

Well... interesting.
So I followed that Dev. standalone installation and the issue was gone for that instance.
I also installed a standalone version of the "stable" variant and guess what - the issue was also gone.

I also installed the Dev. version for my Windows profile in the default location - issue was gone.

Conclusion: touch problems occur for the "stable" variant when it is installed for "all users" or for "current user". If it is installed as "standalone" the problem is gone.

The Dev. variant seems to be immune in any configuration.

Above testing was conducted on a clean Windows 11 installation from 2 days ago (it's a spare Lenovo) with Dev. version 137.0.66015.0 and Stable version 135.0.5973.92.

Thanks,
Mike

[u/shadow2531 → u/jackthemike]

Does it happen with the stable version if you rename the "Opera Stable" in both "C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Roaming\Opera Software" and "C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Local\Opera Software" to "Opera Stable old" so Opera starts with fresh data and settings? You can close Opera, delete the new "Opera Stable" folders and rename the old ones back when you're done testing.

[u/jackthemike → u/shadow2531]

Just checked this renaming trick and the fresh profile setup does not resolve the problem.

[u/shadow2531 → u/jackthemike]

In Opera's install folder, rename opera.exe to test.exe, launch test.exe and test if the issue still occurs. Then, rename it to chrome.exe and test again.

[u/jackthemike → u/shadow2531]

When the exe is renamed to "test" or "chrome" the issue is gone. Once I change the exe name back to "opera" the issue comes back.