Windows Media Player is a great tool for organizing and playing your music, videos, and photos, but it can be a bit cumbersome to use. Global Hotkeys makes it easy to control the player with just a few keystrokes. Global Hotkeys is a free add-on that you can download from the Microsoft website. Once installed, you can access Global Hotkeys by clicking the Tools menu in Windows Media Player and selecting Global Hotkeys. Global Hotkeys lets you control many of the player’s features with just a few keystrokes. For example, you can quickly play or pause your music, change the volume, or search for content. You can also access commonly used playback controls such as play/pause, next/previous track, and fast forward/backward. Global Hotkeys is easy to use and makes it quick and easy to control Windows Media Player. If you’re looking for an easier way to manage your media files then Global Hotkeys is worth considering ..
Windows Media Player has a slew of keyboard shortcuts that work only when the media player is active, but these shortcuts stop working once WMP is no longer in focus or minimized. WMP Keys add the following default global hotkeys for Windows Media Player 10, 11, and 12.
Ctrl+Alt+Home – Play / Pause Ctrl+Alt+Right – Next track Ctrl+Alt+Left – Previous track Ctrl+Alt+Up Arrow Key – Volume Up Ctrl+Alt+Down Arrow Key – Volume Down Ctrl+Alt+F – Fast Forward Ctrl+Alt+B – Fast Backward Ctrl+Alt+[1-5] – Rate 1-5 stars
Note: Tapping Ctrl+Alt+F and Ctrl+Alt+B will skip ahead or back in 5 second intervals.
Close out of Windows Media Player and then download and install WMP Keys (link below). After you’ve installed WMP Keys, you’ll need to enable it. Select Organize and then Options…
In the Options window, select the Plug-ins tab, click Background in the Category window, then check the box for Wmpkeys Plugin. Click OK to save and exit.
You can also enable the plug-in by selecting Tools > Plug-ins and clicking Wmpkeys Plugin.
You to view and edit the global hotkeys in the WMPKeys settings window. Select Tools > Plug-in properties and click Wmpkeys Plugin.
Below you can see all the default WMP Keys shortcuts.
To change any of the shortcuts, select the text box then press the new keyboard shortcut. Click OK when finished.
WMP Keys is very simple little plug-in that makes using WMP while you’re multitasking just a little bit easier and more efficient. Looking for more plugins for Windows Media Player? Check out our previous articles on adding new features with Media Player Plus, and displaying song lyrics with Lyrics Plugin.
Download WMP Keys
