How to block autoplaying videos in the new Microsoft Edge web browser

Microsoft's new Chromium-based Microsoft Edge browser may be configured to block autoplaying media -- video and audio -- automatically; this guide provides you with instructions on how to configure Edge to block autoplay.
Autoplay refers to media content that plays automatically when a user loads a webpage or scrolls down to a particular section on the site. The feature may be desirable on some sites, e.g. it may be a user's expectation on a video site after clicking on a video link on that site, but it may also be undesirable.
Many newspaper sites have started to push videos and many of these play automatically when an article is opened. The same is true for video ads that often play automatically as well.
Note: Windows 10 comes with autoplay settings but these manage device autoplay functionality only.
For a user, it may be seen as disruptive and that is probably the main reason why many web browsers support options to limit or block autoplaying media. Mozilla's Firefox web browser comes with native autoplay controls, and so do other browsers. Brave, a Chromium-based browser may display a prompt when it notices that sites attempt to play media automatically. Microsoft's classic Edge browser supported the blocking of autoplaying media as well.
Microsoft's Chromium-based Microsoft Edge browser gives users control over autoplaying content as well. Current versions support limiting autoplay but a simple change in the experimental settings improves the options further. Once the change has been made, you may configure Microsoft Edge to block autoplaying media by default.
Note: Experimental flags are not yet ready for wider distribution. It is likely that Microsoft will integrate the option in the Settings directly at one point in the future. In this particular case, it appears that some functionality has not yet implemented even in the most recent Canary version. It may still be a good idea to make the settings change right away to block autoplaying media in Edge once it starts to work.
Here is how you block autoplaying content in Microsoft Edge:
- Load edge://flags/ in the Microsoft Edge address bar.
- Search for autoplay.
- Set the experimental flag "Show block option in autoplay settings" to enabled.
- Restart the browser.
- Open the Autoplay Site Settings in Edge after the restart: edge://settings/content/mediaAutoplay.
- Set the setting to "Block".
- Block: Media that plays sound will be blocked from automatically playing. Changes will only be applied to new tabs.
Microsoft's work on the Chromium-based Microsoft Edge web browser continues, and the option to block autoplay is a welcome addition to the browser.
Now You: how do you handle autoplaying media?


Doesn’t Windows 8 know that www. or http:// are passe ?
Well it is a bit difficulty to distinguish between name.com domains and files for instance.
I know a service made by google that is similar to Google bookmarks.
http://www.google.com/saved
@Ashwin–Thankful you delighted my comment; who knows how many “gamers” would have disagreed!
@Martin
The comments section under this very article (3 comments) is identical to the comments section found under the following article:
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/15/netflix-is-testing-game-streaming-on-tvs-and-computers/
Not sure what the issue is, but have seen this issue under some other articles recently but did not report it back then.
Omg a badge!!!
Some tangible reward lmao.
It sucks that redditors are going to love the fuck out of it too.
With the cloud, there is no such thing as unlimited storage or privacy. Stop relying on these tech scums. Purchase your own hardware and develop your own solutions.
This is a certified reddit cringe moment. Hilarious how the article’s author tries to dress it up like it’s anything more than a png for doing the reddit corporation’s moderation work for free (or for bribes from companies and political groups)
Almost al unlmited services have a real limit.
And this comment is written on the dropbox article from August 25, 2023.
First comment > @ilev said on August 4, 2012 at 7:53 pm
For the God’s sake, fix the comments soon please! :[
Yes. Please. Fix the comments.
With Google Chrome, it’s only been 1,500 for some time now.
Anyone who wants to force me in such a way into buying something that I can get elsewhere for free will certainly never see a single dime from my side. I don’t even know how stupid their marketing department is to impose these limits on users instead of offering a valuable product to the paying faction. But they don’t. Even if you pay, you get something that is also available for free elsewhere.
The algorithm has also become less and less savvy in terms of e.g. English/German translations. It used to be that the bot could sort of sense what you were trying to say and put it into different colloquialisms, which was even fun because it was like, “I know what you’re trying to say here, how about…” Now it’s in parts too stupid to translate the simplest sentences correctly, and the suggestions it makes are at times as moronic as those made by Google Translations.
If this is a deep-learning AI that learns from users’ translations and the phrases they choose most often – which, by the way, is a valuable, moneys worthwhile contribution of every free user to this project: They invest their time and texts, thereby providing the necessary data for the AI to do the thing as nicely as they brag about it in the first place – alas, the more unprofessional users discovered the translator, the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, the greater the aggregate of linguistically illiterate users has become, and the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, as it now learns the drivel of every Tom, Dick and Harry out there, which is why I now get their Mickey Mouse language as suggestions: the inane language of people who can barely spell the alphabet, it seems.
And as a thank you for our time and effort in helping them and their AI learn, they’ve lowered the limit from what was once 5,000 to now 1,500…? A big “fuck off” from here for that! Not a brass farthing from me for this attitude and behaviour, not in a hundred years.