Global Hotkeys for Windows Media Player
I usually listen to my MP3 collection using SysTrayPlay (STP) music player. I like the fact that it stays out of the way in my system tray and lets me control most operations by global hotkeys. If I need to pause the music, I just hit CTRL-0 or any other combination I’ve chosen.
Occasionally, I like to listen to music using Windows Media Player (WMP). It’s not the greatest player, but it’s already installed and I like the SRS bass boost. The only problem is that it doesn’t have global hotkeys. When WMP is minimized, there’s no way to pause, control volume, skip songs or any other function.
I got tired of this and I went out for a google search. After a few false leads, I finally found what I was looking for. There’s a great solution at SourceForge.net named WMP Keys‘.
WMP Keys is a plugin for Windows Media Player that gives you global hotkeys for the following:
• Play/Pause Ctrl+Alt+Home
• Next Ctrl+Alt+Right
• Previous Ctrl+Alt+Left
• Volume Up Ctrl+Alt+Up
• Volume Down Ctrl+Alt+Down
• Fast Forward Ctrl+Alt+F
• Fast Backward Ctrl+Alt+B
• Rate [1-5] Ctrl+Alt+[1-5]
WMP Keys is easy to use and manage. Download and install it. The next time you open up Windows Media Player, open up the Tools menu, choose Options and the Plugins tab. Find the Backgrounds category and enable the Wmpkeys plugin with a check in it’s check-box.
At this point, you can choose the Properties button to change any of the hotkeys that are assigned to the Media Player functions.
These hotkeys work. It’s that simple.
via [ghacks]
Would you like to see some of the other cool things you can do with Windows Media Player? Check out these links.
• How to Uninstall Windows Media Player 11
• Play Real Media Files in Windows Media Player
• Play FLV Files In Windows Media Player
• How To Play QuickTime Files In Windows Media Player?
• How To Play Any Video File In Windows Media Player?
Techie Buzz Verdict:
WMP Keys is small, free and open source. It solves what I considered to be a big problem. I’d like to see the plugin expanded to include more functions, but it’s fine the way it is now. I can recommend it to anyone who still loves to play their music in Windows Media Player.
Techie Buzz Rating: 4.5/5 (Excellent)
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Author: Clif Sipe
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4 Responses to this Article | Share your Opinions/Comments
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Thnks a lot…
Thanks for the comment Bee.
Thank you sir. I am now able to Rick Roll unsuspecting victims on the fly >:)
Aha! Thank you, this is just what I was looking for.