How to make YouTube less distracting on desktop

You open YouTube for one video. Twenty minutes later you're three Shorts and two recommended videos away from it, and the comments under each have taken the rest of your attention.

YouTube's settings help less than you'd expect. Here are the three things that pull you off course, what YouTube itself lets you do about each, and how to remove them on desktop for good.

1. Shorts

What YouTube offers: on the home page, the X on the Shorts shelf hides it for 30 days. That's the home page only. Shorts still appear in search results, in your subscriptions and in the left sidebar, and the shelf comes back after the 30 days.

For good: a small tool can remove every Shorts shelf and Shorts video, everywhere on YouTube, and take Shorts out of the sidebar. Step by step: How to hide YouTube Shorts on desktop.

2. Recommendations

What YouTube offers: turning off watch history empties the home feed. It also switches off the features that rely on your history, and it leaves the videos beside the player and on the end screen exactly where they were.

For good: a tool can hide recommended videos on the home page, beside the player and on the end screen, while keeping your history. See How to hide YouTube recommendations.

3. Comments

What YouTube offers: nothing, as a viewer. Creators can turn comments off on their own videos; you can only scroll past them or switch to theatre mode, and they're still there.

For good: a tool can hide the comment section under every video and add a Show comments button for the times you want to read them. See How to hide YouTube comments.

Doing all three at once

Each guide ends with a request you can paste into ScriptPanda on YouTube. If you'd rather do it in one go, describe the YouTube you want:

On YouTube, hide every Shorts shelf and Shorts video, including in search and subscriptions, and remove Shorts from the sidebar. Hide recommended videos on the home page, beside the player and on the end screen. Hide the comments under videos and add a Show comments button that brings them back for the current video.

ScriptPanda reads the YouTube page you're on, writes one tool that does all of it, and runs it. The change stays each time you open YouTube in that browser. If you find you miss something, ask it to bring that part back.

Why not one of the big focus extensions?

General focus extensions can do much of this too, with a settings page of switches. They suit you if their switches happen to match what you want. A tool built from your own description does exactly what you asked and nothing else, and you can change it by asking. Neither is wrong; it depends on whether you'd rather choose from a menu or say what you want.

What this won't do

• It works in Chrome on a computer. The YouTube app on your phone and TV is untouched.
• It hides things on the page. It doesn't change your YouTube account, so YouTube still records what you watch.
• When YouTube redesigns a part of the page, the tool may need fixing. Open YouTube, and ask ScriptPanda to fix it for the page as it is now.

The short version

YouTube's own options are partial: 30 days for Shorts on one page, an empty home feed at the cost of your history, nothing at all for comments. A small tool in your browser can remove all three, everywhere on YouTube on desktop, until you decide otherwise.