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In Windows 7, we’ve improved how people can play and manage their digital media content (like music and videos) through Windows Media Player. Not only did we give Windows Media Player a face lift, it also takes advantage of key Windows 7 features such as the new Windows Taskbar, HomeGroup and Jump Lists. With all the new stuff packed into Windows Media Player, I thought it might be a good idea to highlight some tips for using Windows Media Player.
Starting today, I plan to do a series of 6 blog posts over the course of the next 3 weeks, each dedicated to a single tip for Windows Media Player.
Today’s Tip: Keyboard Shortcuts!
Below is a list of keyboard shortcuts you can use for a variety of activities in Windows Media Player ranging from switching to Player Mode to turning on or off shuffle to shifting between play speeds. If you’re a keyboard fiend – this list is a must-have.
Shortcut
Action
State
Ctrl + 1
Switches to library mode
From any mode
Ctrl + 2
Switches to skin mode
Ctrl + 3
Switches to player mode
From any mode except full screen
Ctrl + 7
Add to Play
In library mode
Ctrl + 8
Add to Burn
Ctrl + 9
Add to Sync
Ctrl + A
Selects everything in a list
In the library or list
Ctrl + B
Previous (Item or Chapter)
With content playing
Ctrl + E
Focus on Search text box and switch to library mode if not there
Ctrl + F
Next (Item or Chapter)
Ctrl + H
Turn on/off shuffle mode
Ctrl + J
Eject
In any mode
Ctrl + M
Toggle menu bar in library
Ctrl + N
Create playlist
Ctrl + O
Shows Open Dialog
Ctrl + P
Play/Pause Toggle
With content queued up
Ctrl + Q
Adds selected track to open list
Default is Play list
Ctrl + S
Stops Playback
Ctrl + T
Turn on/off repeat mode
Ctrl + U
Shows Open URL Dialog
Ctrl + W
Stops playback
With content playing or paused
Ctrl + Shift + B
Rewinds playing content
With DVD playing
Ctrl + Shift + C
Caption On/Off Toggle
Playing content which has captions
Ctrl + Shift + F
Fast forwards playing content
Ctrl + Shift + G
Play Speed Fast
Ctrl + Shift + N
Play Speed Normal
Ctrl + Shift + S
Play Speed Slow
Ctrl + Right Arrow
Next playlist in playlist history
Focus not on Seek bar
Ctrl + Left Arrow
Previous playlist in playlist history
Skip forward (large increment)
Focus on Seek bar
Skip backward (large increment)
Shift + Right Arrow
Skip forward (small increment)
Shift + Left Arrow
Skip backward (small increment)
Right Arrow
Skip forward
Left Arrow
Skip backward
Ctrl + Click
Resize player to image
In Now Playing mode
Escape
Return to Now Playing
Full Screen Mode
F1
Opens Help file
F2
Edit meta data column
In library mode with an item selected
F4
Switch view mode
In library mode, focus in list view
F5
Refresh screen
Focus on library or in online services
F6
Increases album art
Focus in list view
Shift + F6
Decreases album art
F7
Mutes sound
F8
Decrease sound volume
F9
Increases sound volume
F10
Show menu bar in library
Shift + F10
Context menu shortcut
Alt + 1
Video Size 50%
In Now Playing or skin mode, with a video playing
Alt + 2
Video Size 100%
Alt + 3
Video Size 200%
Alt + Enter
Full Screen Toggle
In Now Playing, skin, or full screen mode
Stay tuned – I’ll have another tip for Windows Media Player coming up soon!
NOTE: These tips are for Windows Media Player in Windows 7 only.
I really miss the ALT-key effect (like in Office) in WMP, there's not enough space in my head for all those shortcuts!
Well, took the chance to increase my album art images ;) Is this option even available without the shortcut?
Why in the world is the team choosing cntr+p to play/pause??
It should be as simple as spacebar! Which does not seem to be mapped yet.
Cntr+P requires two hands, is buried among other keys, and as such probably requires the light on because it cannot be found blindfolded. This is stupid!
sirlantis, just bookmark this blog post ;-) I do not believe the ability to increase or decrease album art images is available or exposed outside the keyboard shortcut.
experiencemusic, I'm sorry you are dissatisfied with the keyboard shortcut for play/pause. Thank you for your feedback!
Well, I think in most cases these keyboard shortcuts don't make sense, because whey don't work when WMP isn't the active window.
But actually WMP will be minimized when most people are working, playing or chatting. And when they would like to play the next music for example, they should firstly let WMP be the active Window and then apply the Keyboard. This is obviously so inconvenient.
My solution is to buy a multimedia keyboard with some Playback-Control bottons. I think some critical actions such as play/pause, stop, next should be allocated the keyboard shortcuts that could be applied whenever WMP is the active windows, even if I'm in a full-screen game.
Dear WMP team, I'm not very pleased with the WMP12 UI in Windows 7, although built-in codec support is a nice feature. The buttons to switch between library mode and Now playing are far apart (one at the top of the screen and one at the bottom), now I know keyboard shortcuts but still when using the mouse it is very cumbersome. Why can't the button be in the same place, that is, overlap each other. Also, I don't like how in the minimal view, all the windows are separate boxes (equalizer, video settings etc) that go behind when some other window takes focus. The Advanced Tag Editor is gone. Why? Also, any flash drive I connect shows up as a portable device, why can't I exclude which Flash memory devices I want to use as portable devices for sync? Even if I modify/customize the Now Playing window, the settings such as "Show playlist" don't stick. I know it's hard to please everyone, but the UI's been changing in nearly every version forcing me to re-learn things all over again.
How do you move WMP back to your monitor when the TV is off?
Previous versions allowed you to click on the task bar icon, select Move, press any arrow key then hold the left mouse button and drag WMP (or any or program) back into view.
Not sure if this the right place to provide feedback.
some features in WMP on XP/Vista are missing on Win7:
. unable to view/statistic (e.g. to trouble shoot the video streaming), file/property during playback
I agree with "experiencemusic":
You can find some of these shortcuts on the virtual keyboard:
hot-virtual-keyboard.com/keyboard-shortcuts
if you use auto hotkey you can script keyboard keys to be different things, since i never use my numpad i just remapped them to be shortcuts ex: numpad5 is now ctrl + p, it's really convenient but i haven't tried to see if i can get it to only do when windows media player is active yet
I'm wondering what happened to the shortcut that use to let you advance through the visualizations
saggman54@yahoo.com
How do I DISABLE WMP12's hotkeys?
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I stopped for a year using my new May 2011 laptop (i5-480M, 8GB, Win7 Ultimate, WMP12) because Windows 7's regression from Windows XP, while expected, was in facts even worse, and so catastrophic that I returned to my good old Feb 2006 laptop (WinXP Pro Multilingual, WMP10). WXP let me make a powerful use of my PC, Windows 7 Ultimate is a toy (and a botched one) in comparison.
However recently my old PC suffered so I was forced onto my new one. WMP12 is even worse than the rest of Win7: it can't play properly a 2.5GB .m2ts video, that VLC2.0.5 plays smoothly with no problem at all. Most things WMP10 did nicely are very cumbersome or impossible at all in WMP12. Handling a vast music store is a nightmare. And if typing in Chrome while WMP12 is playing music, typing some benign key strokes like Ctrl+End removes WMP12 from the music track it was playing and sends it in a totally stranger place! For the same reason (utterly stupid hotkeys) I can't, in WMP12, edit the track infos like I did in WMP10: e.g. Ctrl+Left Arrow removes me from the field I was editing!!! And looking for a way to disable this major annoyance finds nothing. Must I (if ever this is possible) uninstall WMP12?
BTW I did find something improved in WMP12: the album info retrieving, that had constantly regressed over the years from Windows 95, has clearly got some fix, thus is much better. But all the rest is much worse in WMP12 than WMP10 (I skipped WMP11 whose main change was a potential destruction of my own DRMs over my own music).
Versailles, Fri 11 Jan 2013 15:13:20 +0100