Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2025 December 30

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December 30

Can I turn off the sound in one window and not others?

If I am trying to listen to music, it is annoying if I get an ad that has sound. Recently I encountered an advertiser that will not allow the ad to be removed and uses a fake button to turn off the sound, which opens a new tab as if I have clicked on the ad but does nothing for the sound. I don't want to turn off the sound entirely because online is the only way to listen to music I like. Actual radio stations don't care about people with my musical taste.

I have complained to the web site that has the ads and they blame someone else (whose method of contact won't work for me). I have contacted the advertiser who says contact the people who are in charge of the ads on the site.

At least one web site won't allow me to use ad blockers. I can't just turn the ad blocker off for them. I mean if I try to do that, the web site knows the ad blocker is there and still won't allow me to use the site.

I would ask this on a Microsoft site but that site recently changed to the point I can't ask questions, and when I somehow got a question posted, I got no response.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 22:06, 30 December 2025 (UTC)

I've not used Windows in a while, but you can do this by app. IIRC you right click the volume icon, and click something like "Open Volume Mixer" which gives you a mixer for each app. I'm pretty sure this opens Windows Settings (if so, I think there's a Winaero Tweaker mod to replace the mixer with the by-app mixer).

Also, what website are we talking about here? What browser? thetechie@enwiki:~$ she/they | talk | contributions 02:41, 1 January 2026 (UTC)

Edge, but I don't use apps.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 15:34, 1 January 2026 (UTC)

@Vchimpanzee The volume mixer suggestion would work (I'm very sure Windows 11 still has a per-app volume mixer but there are also custom tools like EarTrumpet). But I prefer muting the individual tabs in the browser because, like you, I often have something else playing. In Firefox I use an extension called "Disable HTML5 Autoplay". The only downsides I've had with that is it interferes with Cloudflare's CAPTCHAs (because autoplay is one heuristic that the CAPTCHA uses), and it breaks some menus on websites. But it's very easy to turn the extension off for affected sites.

Firefox also allows me to mute particular tabs if I right click on the tab and click "mute tab". Komonzia (talk) 09:25, 1 January 2026 (UTC)

Firefox has a built-in setting for that: Settings → Privacy and security → scroll to permissions: autoplay. You can block autoplay of audio only or both audio and video. It's good enough for me. PiusImpavidus (talk) 09:58, 1 January 2026 (UTC)

To add to this, basically every major browser has a hidden autoplay setting. Like on Firefox and forks (e.g. Zen, Librewolf), there is a setting called Autoplay which I've set to "Block Audio and Video". thetechie@enwiki:~$ she/they | talk | contributions 20:03, 1 January 2026 (UTC)

I can't just turn the ad blocker off for them. I mean if I try to do that, the web site knows the ad blocker is there and still won't allow me to use the site. What do you mean? You can definitely turn off the adblocker for one website, the website won't know it's there. Websites cannot snoop into browser internals. thetechie@enwiki:~$ she/they | talk | contributions 20:04, 1 January 2026 (UTC)

I wish I could explain it. It would involve turning the ad blocker on and documenting exactly what happens and right now that's all more complicated than what I want to deal with.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 23:30, 1 January 2026 (UTC)

Right-click on the tab. You can mute a tab. You can mute a site. You cannot, through Windows, selectively mute an ad on a page while keeping all other sound on the page normal. ~2026-29536 (talk) 12:13, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

The sound I want is in another window so that's not a problem.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 17:53, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

You're going to have to give us more info to help you. What does "window" mean here? Browser window? What adblocker do you use? thetechie@enwiki:~$ she/they | talk | contributions 03:17, 3 January 2026 (UTC)

I right click and select "Open in new window".— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 18:56, 4 January 2026 (UTC)

Hi @Vchimpanzee, I think I understand now. If you're using AdBlock Plus (ABP for short, the most popular adblocker), I'm pretty sure they have some agreement with Google (and possibly other advertisers) that on some pages they will display ads anyway as they're getting paid off (I think it was ABP that Google had that agreement with). It's possible that some other ad vendors are paying them off too. That probably results in the site knowing that you're using it, as ABP is leaking the data to it.

One thing you can try: if you're willing to, could you try uninstalling ABP (or whatever adblocker you use) and install uBlock Origin (not uBlock) instead? It's the one I use, and I've never once gotten adblocker notices. (My honest opinion, I'm not connected to the devs.) thetechie@enwiki:~$ she/they | talk | contributions 03:24, 3 January 2026 (UTC)

Can the order be changed of what displays when I right click?

At a library I go to, if I right click, I get a list of options including "Open in new tab} (which I don't want), "Open in new window" (which I do) and "open in split screen" (which I don't want and accidentally did, and when I asked for help, no one could figure out how to make the screen normal again). The problem is that split screen appears before new window (at home split screen comes below new window, which it is supposed to) The library somehow figured out how to fix this, even after the person I asked for help said it couldn't be. Now another library has this order. I meant to ask someone to see about getting this fixed. And if I do, I need to know what to tell them.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 22:10, 30 December 2025 (UTC)

Can you tell us what the platform is (Windows 10? macOS?) en which app this refers to (Edge? Chrome?).  ​‑‑Lambiam 00:31, 31 December 2025 (UTC)

I'm not at that library now but it is Windows with Chrome.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 15:40, 31 December 2025 (UTC)

Click the split view button in the upper right and exit split view. ~2026-29536 (talk) 12:11, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

Well, the person at the library couldn't figure that one out.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 17:54, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

That's barely surprising, they're librarians, not computer experts used to dealing with non-computer experts. MinorProphet (talk) 20:44, 4 January 2026 (UTC)