Picture in Picture (PIP) is a multi-window mode that is particularly useful for watching videos. The user can browse or use other Apps’ content while watching the movie in a smaller floating Window.
Therefore, if you enjoy watching videos while concentrating on other tasks in the foreground, the Picture in Picture mode will be helpful to you. This eliminates the need for a split-screen. So, in this article, you will learn how to run any app in picture-in-picture mode on Windows 11/10.
How to use Picture in Picture on Windows 11/10
Given below are five ways using which you can watch videos in Picture in Picture mode on your Windows PC:
- Movies & TV App
- VLC Media Player
- Google Chrome
- Microsoft Edge and Mozilla Firefox
1] Movies & TV App
On your Windows PC, you can use the Movies & TV app to play videos in Picture in Picture using the mini mode. Let us see how to do it:
- Open the video you want to play in mini view using the Movies & TV app. You can right-click on the video from its destination folder and choose Open with > Movies & TV.
- Find the Play in mini view icon at the bottom of the Movies & TV app, and click on it.
- The video will reduce to mini view and remain at the corner of your PC’s screen or wherever you drag it, and you can work while watching videos in mini view.
2] VLC Media Player
While the Windows version of VLC media player does not directly support picture-in-picture mode, there are several settings you can change to have the same effect as PiP mode if you are running it on a Windows PC. The methods below will show you how to use VLC Windows’ Picture in Picture mode on a Windows 11 PC:
- Open the video you want in PiP mode using VLC Media Player. Next, click the View tab and enable the Always on top option. This will constantly set VLC above all other open windows, producing the same results as picture-in-picture mode.
- To minimize the VLC player’s components, click the Tools tab and choose Preferences from the menu.
- In the Simple Preferences window, click on the Interface tab and uncheck the Integrate video in interface option. Next, click Save.
For the changes to take effect, close and reopen the VLC Media Player. The video will play in Picture in Picture mode. You must enable the Always on top option from the View tab whenever you reopen VLC Media Player. Now, you can resize the VLC player to any size and move it wherever you like on your screen.
Tip: To remove the window borders in VLC, go to Tools > Preferences > Video and uncheck the Windows decorations option. By doing this, the VLC player will become frameless and lose its borders.
3] Google Chrome
You can use the Picture in Picture mode in Chrome by setting up an Extension. You can use the extension to view videos on any website in a floating window.
- Let us start by adding the Picture-in-Picture Chrome Extension by Google to the list of your Chrome extensions. Click on the Add to Chrome button next to it and click on the Add extension button in the pop-up window.
- Websites with videos from Facebook and YouTube, Netflix, etc., is compatible with the extension. Thus, it might function on practically all websites.
- Now, play the video you wish to from a website. Now, use these key combinations Alt + P to launch Picture in Picture on Chrome on your Windows PC.
- You can also activate PiP by clicking the Picture-in-Picture extension icon. When turned on, the leading video will become black, and a tiny floating window will begin playing at one corner of your PC’s screen. Additionally, you can change the mini-player’s window size and position according to your preferences.
Note: the Picture in Picture extension only deals with one video at a time. If a video is already playing in a floating window, it cannot simultaneously play another video in PiP mode. However, it will replace the first video if you attempt to play another one.
4] Microsoft Edge and Mozilla Firefox
You can also use Picture in Picture mode both in Firefox and Microsft Edge as they are built into the browsers making it easy for you to experience and multi-task. Read our guide on:
So, these are the techniques for enabling Windows’ Picture in Picture mode. You can use the Windows 11 Movies & TV app for locally stored media files. To play videos on websites like YouTube, Facebook, Netflix, Prime Video, etc., you can use the Picture in Picture extension in Google Chrome.
How to do picture-in-picture on YouTube on PC?
Youtube allows anyone to switch to a mini-player by clicking on the icon on every YouTube player. All you need to do is open a Youtube video and click one PIP icon. When you do that, the player appears on the bottom-right, and the browser returns to the home page.
Is there Picture-in-Picture on PC?
While there is no PIP mode on PC, apps and browsers, allow videos to be played in Picture-in-Picture mode. Look for the PIP icon on the player once you start playing it, and you should see the way to play it in a mini-player.
