The following tutorial demonstrates how to enable or disable the VP9 extension in the Microsoft Edge browser when using a version of the Windows 10 operating system.

The VP9 extension is an alternative to the MPEG video player. Both of these video players offer compression to stream HD video content at lower bitrates, meaning they help you stream HD videos on internet connections that don’t have the fastest internet download speed. With varying degrees of internet connections around the world as we continue to grow our bandwidth capabilities, open-source video formats such as these are an important service otherwise there would be far more people suffering from lagging computer screens as they try to watch the same content as everyone else. VP9 was originally used by YouTube. It has since grown in popularity.

Microsoft Edge is a cross-platform web browser developed by Microsoft. It was first released for Windows 10 and Xbox One in 2015, then for Android and iOS in 2017, for macOS in 2019, and as a preview for Linux in October 2020. Edge was initially built with Microsoft’s own proprietary browser engine EdgeHTML and their Chakra JavaScript engine, a version now referred to as Microsoft Edge Legacy.

The Chromium version of Edge, often just referred to as the “new Edge” now, has replaced the Legacy version since March 9, 2021, when it was discontinued for good. This is most certainly for the better as the new Edge is an obvious choice over the Legacy variant. Edge is now a lot like Chrome. That is a good thing because Chrome was the undisputed king of web browser performance. We don’t use Edge as much as the Chrome we have bonded with for so long now but still do use it as a secondary browser and almost daily.

How to Enable or Disable VP9 Codec Extension in Microsoft Edge in Windows 10

Update: VPN has since been automatically enabled by Microsoft Edge, meaning you don’t need to enable a flag for it anymore.

1. Open the Microsoft Edge browser by clicking on its icon in the taskbar.

2. In Edge’s address bar, type about:flags and then press the Enter key on your keyboard to launch the Edge flags page.

3. Under Media Source Extensions, select Always on, Automatic, or Always off in the Enable VP9 video format menu depending on what you want to do.

4. Restart the Edge browser either by using the option at the bottom of the flags window or by reopening the browser for the changes to take effect.

In conclusion, that is how to enable and disable the VP9 codec extension that is going to allow you to watch the highest quality videos at a lower than usual bandwidth when using the Edge browser in any version of Windows 10.

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