How to get YouTube to permanently use the larger video player size (without extensions or plugins)

It’s annoyed me for some time that the player size option in YouTube has become increasingly hidden away, and is forgotten every time you restart your browser.

Thankfully the option is stored simply in a cookie (wide=1), which is easy enough to set so that it is reasonably permanent without using any browser plugins or extensions.

Google Chrome

If you use the Google Chrome browser follow these instructions:

1. First go to youtube.com (important, otherwise the cookie will not get set)
2. In your browser address bar type javascript: (lowercase, the colon is important)
    
3. Paste this code after the javascript: you just typed:
   document.cookie = "wide=1;domain=youtube.com;expires=Fri, 31 Dec 9999 23:59:59 GMT"

Now any videos you watch from now on should be in the larger video player every time you visit YouTube.

Internet Explorer

Recent versions of Internet Explorer don’t seem to allow you to type in arbitrary JavaScript into the browser address bar so you have to use the F12 Developer Tools to run the script.

1. First go to youtube.com (important, otherwise the cookie will not get set)
2. Press the F12 function key , or choose F12 Developer Tools from the Tools menu button at the top right:
   
3. In the window that appears, click the Console tab and at the very bottom at the >> prompt paste the following code;
   document.cookie = "wide=1;domain=youtube.com;expires=Fri, 31 Dec 9999 23:59:59 GMT"
   

You can now close the F12 Developer Tools window and enjoy the larger video player every time you visit YouTube.

Hope that helps!