`</BingeCode>`

Watch any video directly inside Visual Studio.

BingeCode mirrors any browser or media player window into a VS tool window using the Windows DWM Thumbnail API, hardware-accelerated, zero CPU overhead, no screen capture. It automatically detects and crops to the video-only area, stripping browser chrome, sidebars, and recommendations.

Features

Mirror any window: pick any visible browser or media player from the dropdown; the live DWM thumbnail appears instantly inside VS
Video-only crop: UI Automation walks the accessibility tree to locate the <video> element and crops the mirror to show only the player; center-fitted so no black bars appear regardless of aspect ratio
Keep-alive: prevents browsers from throttling or pausing video when VS has focus
Fullscreen mode: F11 or double-click expands the mirror to fill the entire tool window and hides VS pane decorations; the mini-bar fades in on mouse move
Embedded browser: paste any URL or open a local video file directly inside VS
Broad app support: all Chromium browsers, Firefox/Zen, VLC, MPC, Stremio, Kodi, Discord, Zoom, and more

Installation

From the Marketplace (recommended)

Install directly from the Visual Studio Marketplace, search for BingeCode.

From source

Clone this repository
Open BingeCode.slnx in Visual Studio 2022
Build the solution (Ctrl+Shift+B)
Double-click the .vsix from BingeCode/bin/Debug/ to install, or press F5 to launch in the experimental VS instance

Usage

Action	Result
Open View → Other Windows → BingeCode	Shows the tool window
Pick a window from the dropdown	Starts mirroring, video-only crop applied automatically
Click ⟳	Refreshes the window list
Click ⊡ or press F11	Toggles fullscreen
Double-click content area	Toggles fullscreen
Mouse move in fullscreen	Shows the exit bar
Paste URL + press Enter or Go	Navigates the embedded browser
Click …	Opens a local video file

Requirements

Visual Studio 2022 (17.0+), Community, Professional, or Enterprise
Windows 10 / 11
.NET Framework 4.7.2

How it works

BingeCode uses the DWM Thumbnail API (DwmRegisterThumbnail) to composite a live, hardware-accelerated copy of any window's client area directly onto the VS root HWND, no screen capture, no CPU rendering.

When a window is selected, a background UI Automation scan walks the source window's accessibility tree looking for a <video> element. If found, rcSource is set to that element's exact screen bounds so the thumbnail shows only the video. If UIA can't find the element, the full client area is stretched to fill the panel.

License

MIT