Get ourtop storiesand moreDelivered to yourinbox for free!Battle of the best browsers: Edge vs. Chrome vs. Firefox vs. Safari vs. Opera vs. IECortana and Edge take the shine off Microsoft’s excellent OSHow to watch Apple’s iPhone 6S event today, and chat with us liveWant some Internet in your Windows 10 Start Menu? Here’s how to pin your favorite websitesGoogle will automatically pause Flash ads and videos in Chrome starting Sept. 1While we’re not sure who’s exactly to blame for the invention of the Internet’s most widespread nuisance, we do know of a number of solutions if you’d rather start videos on your own accord instead of being subjected to an unwarranted wall of sound when you’re navigating popular sites. Below are the best methods for stopping both HTML5 and Shockwave Flash videos from autoplaying in Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Microsoft Edge, and Internet Explorer. Related: How to delete browser cookies in Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and IEGoogle ChromeStep 1: Launch Google Chrome as you would normally.Step 2: Click the customization button — depicted by three horizontal lines — in the upper-right corner of window. Afterward, select Settings from the resulting drop-down menu.Step 3: Scroll to the bottom of the page, clicked Show advanced settings, and scroll down to the Privacy section.Step 4: Click the gray Content settings button and check the box beside “Let me choose when to run plugin content,” housed within the Plugins section.ChromeAutoplayOffNow, every time a video appears on a site, a gray box with a puzzle piece will appear instead of autoplaying. If you wish to watch the video, simply right-click the gray box and select “run this plugin.”FirefoxflashStopperFlashStopper enabled in FirefoxThe latest versions of Firefox lack a setting for fully disabling autoplay. Such being the case, the best way to disable both Shockwave flash and HTML5 videos from autoplaying in Firefox is with a browser add-on. Flash Stopper, which is readily available form the Mozilla store, is a free add-on that does exactly that.Once installed, the add-on will display an icon in the toolbar where you can manage settings and exceptions for websites and content you’d like to autoplay. Unless you make an exception, however, the add-on will squash all content that would otherwise play automatically.Internet ExplorerClick the gear icon in the upper-right corner of IE to begin. Next, select Safety and click Turn on Active X filtering. This should stop certain content from autoplaying, though, it likely won’t completely solve your problem. Follow the brief instructions below to get full-scale video stoppage.Step 1: Select Tools from the menu at the top of the window, followed by Manage add-ons.Step 2: Double check that Toolbars and Extensions is selected in the resulting pop-up window. Then, double-click Shockwave Flash Object.Step 3: Click the Remove all sites button toward the bottom of the window to disable autoplay videos.IEAutoPlayerStopFrom here on out, whenever a website has video content, the videos will either appear blank or not at all. A discrete bar will also appear at the bottom of the browser asking to allow Flash. You can simply click yes to allow the video to play, or hit the “x” to close the bar. Videos will only play if you allow them.Related: Battle of the best browsers: Which one is the best?Microsoft EdgeThankfully, Microsoft has made it is easy to block autoplaying videos on the new Edge browser — almost deceptively so. With just the flip of a switch, you can browse annoyance-free.Well, mostly.Microsoft Edge has an option to prevent Adobe Flash player from running, meaning autoplaying videos that use Flash will be DOA. But if you’re looking to block HTML5 videos, which is a format that’s being used more and more these days, you’ll be at a loss given Edge has no such capabilities. Still, it’s worth going through with the procedure to reduce the number of autoplaying videos you run into.Step 1: Launch Edge, click the More actions button in the top-right corner, and select Settings.Step 2: Scroll down to the bottom of the settings window and click the View Advanced Settings button.Step 3: Locate the Use Adobe Flash Player option and toggle the switch beneath to off.
Source: How to Block Autoplay Video in Every Major Browser | Digital Trends