If you have used past versions of Windows, you are probably familiar with the Windows Media Player taskbar toolbar (or taskband). The taskbar toolbar used to be triggered whenever Media Player was minimized and provided a quick and convenient way to control playback. Unfortunately, this feature was dumped in Windows Media Player 12, which ships with Windows 7 ^[1]. However, Justin from WinMatrix ^[2] has found a way to enable Windows Media Player toolbar even in Windows 7 ^[1].

• You will first need to get a copy of the %programfiles%Windows Media Playerwmpband.dll file from a WMP 11 installation. You can obtain it from your friend’s system or you can use the download links provided at the end of this post. Remember that you must copy from a system with the same OS architecture (i.e. 32 bit or 64 bit).
• Paste this file in the %programfiles%Windows Media Player directory.
• Type services.msc in the Start Menu and hit Enter. Ensure that Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service is stopped.
• Start command prompt as administrator by typing cmd in the Start Menu and pressing Ctrl+Shift+Enter.
• Type regsvr32 “%programfiles%Windows Media Playerwmpband.dll” and press Enter.
• Restart the Windows Media Player Network Sharing service (if you had stopped it earlier on).



• Run Windows Media Player and minimize it. Right click on an empty spot in the taskbar and select Toolbars –> Windows Media Player. Ignore the warning and you should get the Windows Media Player taskbar toolbar.

[ Download Windows Media Player wmpband.dll: 32 bit ^[3] 64 bit ^[4] ]

[ via BlogsDNA ^[5] ]