Watch YouTube in Windowed Full Screen Mode With This Browser Extension
Sometimes you want a cinematic YouTube experience, but the default player dimensions on the website leave a lot to be desired on the desktop.
A regular player is fine, but small and the user interface can be distracting. Full screen mode fills the entire video screen, but you cannot access other browser tabs or applications while watching this mode.
The middle option is “theater mode,” which expands the video beyond the normal size of the player without blocking other open tabs. However, it is not much larger than the usual YouTube video size, and it changes the website’s user interface in awkward ways.
If none of these options work for you, you can try the Windowed FullScreen YouTube browser add-on.
As with normal YouTube full screen, YouTube windowed full screen enlarges video outside of normal viewing or theater viewing, but only takes up the browser window, not the entire screen, so you can continue to use other apps. Best of all, the video maintains a browser-fill size even if you navigate to other tabs or apps, so you don’t have to re-enable it when you return to the video.
I didn’t test it for long, but I was sold. I’m also surprised that YouTube doesn’t offer this feature yet. Here are some screenshots for comparison:
The add-on was created by the developer “navi.jador” who recently ported the add-on to Firefox . It is also available for Google Chrome .
This is how it works:
- Download the add-on from the Chrome or Firefox add-on stores. Follow the instructions on the screen to complete the installation.
- With Windowed FullScreen installed, go to YouTube and play the video.
- Press the “” button (located directly to the left of the “1” key) to enter windowed full screen mode. Click it again to return to the default view.
You can also tweak several options in the add-in settings to customize the controls and behavior to your liking.
One of the settings allows you to hide YouTube’s default “full screen” toggle from the video, and you can change the hotkey to enable / disable windowed full screen mode. The add-on can also switch automatically when playing a video. To find these options, right-click the YouTube Windows FullScreen icon next to the address bar and select Options.
YouTube Windowed FullScreen is great if you don’t like any compromises that standard YouTube video layouts force you into, but it’s not the only alternative YouTube viewing experience available for Chrome and Firefox users.
There is also a picture-in-picture (PIP) playback option if you prefer the video to always be displayed on screen. Unlike windowed full screen mode, PIP plays YouTube videos in a smaller, resizable player window that will be displayed on top of other on-screen applications. YouTube PIP is available in Chrome and Firefox by default – you don’t need to install any third-party extensions, but the steps to use it depend on which browser you’re using.
[ gHacks ]