How to Enable or Disable Media Autoplay in Microsoft Edge Chromium

Wondering how to enable or disable Media Autoplay in Microsoft Edge Chromium?

You most likely have been caught off-guard by media that plays automatically when you hop on to certain sites. These videos/audio starts playing as soon as you land on a website or start scrolling through the page.

Many websites have been quick to add this feature and while it might be helpful when it displays content related to your interests, it might not always be welcome. Perhaps you’d like to disable it in order to prevent yourself from becoming embarrassed by an ill-timed video that pops up on your screen in a gathering. 

In any case, you can enable or disable Media Autoplay in Microsoft Edge based on your preferences in a few simple steps. In this guide, we will walk you through all the relevant methods of doing so in detail. 

Let’s get started!

1. Allow, Block, or Limit Media Autoplay in Microsoft Edge.

In the first method, we will teach you how to allow, block, or limit media autoplay in Microsoft Edge by modifying the browser’s settings. 

Make sure you have the latest version of Microsoft Edge installed on your PC before proceeding. 

Here is what you need to do:

  1. Launch Microsoft Edge and click on the More button (three dots) from the top-left corner of your PC. 
  2. Select Settings from the list of options available.
  3. Now select Cookies and site permissions from the left panel and in the right pane, click on Media autoplay.
  1. Expand the dropdown menu against Control if audio and video play automatically on sites and select the option you want. 
Enable or Disable Media Autoplay in Microsoft Edge Chromium

Note: Here is what different options mean:

Allow – The media will play audio and video automatically. Only new tabs will be affected by the changes

Block – Media for playing audio and video on sites will be blocked. Any changes will only apply to new tabs.

Limit – The media will be blocked based on what you have previously blocked on sites. Only new tabs will be affected by the changes. 

That’s it.

This should allow you to perform the desired operation without any issues. 


Re-enable the Media Autoplay Block Option in Microsoft Edge

If you want to re-enable the Media Autoplay block option in the browser, here is what you need to do:

  1. Launch Microsoft Edge and navigate to the address mentioned below. 
edge://flags/#edge-autoplay-user-setting-block-option
  1. Expand the drop-down menu against Show block option in autoplay settings and select Enabled
Enable or Disable Media Autoplay in Microsoft Edge Chromium

This should re-enable the feature on Microsoft Edge without any issues. 

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3. Use Windows Registry. 

The Windows Registry is a database that stores low-level information about applications and processes. When Windows performs relevant functions, it uses this information, which makes the Registry a key part of our operating system. 

Assuming your computer is used by multiple users and you wish to disable or enable Media Autoplay in Microsoft Edge for all of them so that they cannot undo the settings, the best way is through Windows Registry.

Make sure, however, that you are logged into Windows as an administrator before proceeding with this method.

Here is how you can do that:

  1. Open a Run dialogue box by pressing Windows + R keys simultaneously. 
  2. Inside the text field of the dialogue box, type ‘regedit‘ and hit Enter. This will launch Registry Editor on your PC.  
  1. In the Group Policy Editor, navigate to the location mentioned below.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge
  1. Right-click anywhere in the right pane and select the New > DWORD 32-bit Value option.
  2. Rename this value as AutoplayAllowed and double-click on it.
  3. Under Value data, type 0 if you want to block the feature and 1 if you want to enable it. 
Enable or Disable Media Autoplay in Microsoft Edge Chromium

By doing so, you will be able to disable/enable the Autoplay feature in Microsoft Edge without any issues.

This brings us to the end of our guide on ways to enable or disable Media Autoplay in Microsoft Edge Chromium. We hope that one of the methods mentioned above did the trick for you. If you have any questions regarding the steps, feel free to let us know in the comment section below.

If this guide helped you, please share it. 🙂

Author

  • Zainab Falak

    Zainab Falak is a staff writer for Saint and an expert in Microsoft Windows, having authored more than 200 posts. She has a Bachelors in Actuarial Sciences and her passion for computers extends to exploring various aspects, from UI customization to the Windows registry and exploring error codes. Twitter LinkedIn

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