Wikipedia:How to disable the VisualEditor

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VisualEditor is turned off for users of older web browsers. Also, it is currently not available to unregistered users. If you don't want to use VisualEditor on other browsers, for whatever reason, this page documents ways of avoiding VisualEditor and how to turn VisualEditor off, at least until it is permanently enforced.

The official opt-out

Access to VisualEditor is handled by user preferences on the English Wikipedia. To remove your access to VisualEditor, go to the Editing section of Special:Preferences and check "Temporarily disable the visual editor while it is in beta".

There is no way to permanently disable the visual editor. (There is no timeline for when the visual editor is out of beta, however)

Avoiding VisualEditor on a case by case basis

One simple way to avoid VisualEditor is to click the tab "Edit source", instead of the tab "Edit", if you are going to edit an entire article or a User page.

To avoid VisualEditor for a section of a page you need to hover the mouse pointer over the "edit" link to the right of the section name (or over the section name itself), then click "edit source" when that link appears.

This approach lets you decide to use or avoid VisualEditor on a case by case basis.

Options for IP users

If you are unregistered or logged-out you need to do nothing. VisualEditor is not currently available to unregistered or logged-out users at the English Wikipedia.

Unsupported browsers

VisualEditor is currently disabled for users of Internet Explorer 9 and earlier.

Other (less-used) browsers may also not be supported by VisualEditor, now or in the future.

If the "Edit source" tab is visible on a Wikipedia article then there will also be an "Edit" tab to use VisualEditor, and the browser is supported by VisualEditor. If there isn't, the browser is not supported.