How to Stop VLC Media Player from Resizing Automatically

Learn how to stop VLC from automatically resizing when a new video starts playing in simple and easy steps.

For Windows, VLC is one of the most popular video players thanks to its wide range of compatibility, ease of use, and plenty of options to quickly customize the player however you want. One of the weird features of VLC is that it automatically resizes the window to match the video resolution, unless it is in full screen. For example, let’s say you have a few videos in your playlist with different video resolutions. Every time a new video starts playing, VLC automatically resizes the window to match the video resolution. It doesn’t matter whether you manually resized the window to a specific size.

Thankfully, you can configure the “Resize interface to video size” option to stop this behavior. In this quick and easy guide, I will show you the steps to stop or prevent VLC from automatically resizing to fit the video. Let’s get started.

Stop VLC from Resizing Automatically

To prevent VLC from changing the window size for new videos, you need to uncheck the “Resize interface to video size” option. Here’s how to do it.

1. Open the Start menu by pressing the “Windows key”.
2. Search for “VLC media player” and click “Open“.
3. Click the “Tools” > “Preferences” option on the top nav bar.
4. Go to the “Interface” tab at the top.
5. Select the “Simple” option in the bottom left corner.
6. Uncheck the “Resize interface to video size” checkbox.
7. Click the “Save” button.
8. Close and reopen the VLC media player.
9. With that, VLC will no longer resize automatically.

Detailed Steps (With Screenshots)

First, we must open the VLC media player. To do that, open the Start menu by pressing the “Windows key” on your keyboard. Next, search for “VLC media player” in the start menu and click “Open“.

After opening the VLC media player application, click the “Tools” option on the top nav bar and then select the “Preferences” option. Alternatively, you can also press the “Ctrl + P” keyboard shortcut. This is where you will find all the customization options to configure the VLC media player.

In the preferences window, ensure that the “Simple” mode is selected under the “Show Settings” section in the bottom left corner. Next, uncheck the “Resize interface to video size” option.

Click the “Save” button to save the change.

Finally, restart the VLC media player. After restarting, the media player will not resize the window to fit the video.

Good to know: How to record the computer screen with VLC

Modify VLCRC File to Stop VLC from Resizing Automatically (Alternative Method)

As an alternative method, you can modify the VLCRC file (configuration file) to prevent the VLC media player from changing window size automatically. Here’s how.

Note: Before making changes to the file, create a copy of the original file in another folder and then modify the original file. This allows you to restore the file if something goes wrong.

1. Open the Run dialog by pressing “Windows key + R”.
2. Enter “%userprofile%/AppData/Roaming/VLC” in the blank field and click “OK“.
3. Right-click the “vlcrc” file.
4. Select the “Edit in Notepad” option.
5. Press “Ctrl + F” to open Find.
6. Enter “qt-video-autoresize” and press “Enter“.
7. Replace “1” next to it with “0“.
8. Press “Ctrl + S” to save the file.
9. Close the notepad window.
10. With that, you’ve configured VLC not to resize to fit the video.

Detailed Steps (With Screenshots)

To start off, press the “Windows key + R” keyboard shortcut to open the Run dialog. Once it opens, enter the following path in its blank field and click “OK“. This action opens the VLC config folder.

%userprofile%/AppData/Roaming/VLC

In this folder, find the “vlcrc” file, right-click on it, and select the “Edit in Notepad” option.

Note: On Windows, you can also select “Open with” > “Notepad”.

In the notepad, we need to find the resizing option. So, press “Ctrl + F“, type “qt-video-autoresize” in the blank field, and click on the “Find Next” button.

Once you find the “Resize interface to the native video size” option, replace “1” with “0” next to “qt-video-autoresize“. After changing, this is how it should look in the notepad.

Next, press the “Ctrl + S” keyboard shortcut or select “File” > “Save” to save the changes.

Finally, reopen the VLC media player, and it no longer automatically changes the window size to fit the video.

Good to know: How to rotate and save the video in VLC.

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That is all. It is that simple to stop VLC from automatically resizing the window to fit the video. If you have any questions or need help, comment below. I’ll be happy to assist.