Expand the YouTube Video Player to its Maximum Size within the Browser

Expand the YouTube Video Player to its Maximum Size within the Browser (Not Full Screen)

The default full screen button in the YouTube video player expands the video such that it covers your entire desktop area and all existing windows on the screen stay hidden as long as you are watching the video is this "maximized" state.

But what if you want more control over the size of the YouTube video player, here’s a simple hack – just replace the word "watch" in the URL of any YouTube video with "watch_popup" and the video will expand to fit your browser window, not the desktop.

For instance, if the original YouTube video is located at ..

youtube.com/watch?v=2mrRvUNlq50

the same video can be accessed standalone outside the YouTube website at..

youtube.com/watch_popup?v=2mrRvUNlq50

Resizing the browser window will also resize the YouTube player and you can press F11 in Firefox to mimic YouTube’s full screen mode even with this hack.


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