Access Menu Bar in "Now Playing" Mode Windows Media Player 12

It's always annoying when a subsequent version of a software program eliminates useful features. When a new version of a program requires more clicks to accomplish the same task, user feedback isn't being sought and usability tests aren't being conducted.

So it is with Windows Media Player 12.

It appears as though there is no way to anchor the Menu Bar to the Now Playing screen of Windows Media Player 12. In other words, when a song is playing or has just finished and you want to open a new song, you have to switch back to Library, open the song, and then click Now Playing again. (Note: the Now Playing screen is the view in which many people like to have Visualizations—the lines, colours and shapes that move around in tune to the music—turned on when playing songs.)

However, there is a simple shortcut to access the Menu Bar (the tool bar with File, View, Play, Tools and Help) from the Now Playing screen. In addition, in this tutorial I will explain how to change Windows Media Player 12 so that when you open the program, it opens on the Now Playing screen.

This tutorial is for Windows Media Player 12 on Windows 7 operating system. There are two parts to this tutorial:
—To access Menu Bar from the Now Playing screen in Windows Media
Player 12
—To change Windows Media Player 12 default opening screen to Now Playing

To access Menu Bar from the Now Playing screen in Windows Media Player 12:

1. Open Windows Media Player 12

2. Click Organize

3. Point to Layout

4. Click Show menu bar

Note: Show menu bar is activated when there is a check mark next to it.

Tip: You can also activate Show menu bar with the shortcut
Ctrl + M (instead of steps 2–4 above).

5. Play your desired song
—Click File, and then click Open
—Navigate to the location of music file and click Open

Note: this step is not necessary in order to complete the instructions that show you how to access the Menu Bar from the Now Playing screen. This step is only included here to replicate the likely situation in which you would normally use these features.

6. Click View and then click Now Playing

7. Press the Alt key on your keyboard

8. Point to File and click Open

Tip: You can also use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + O to open the Open dialog box (instead of steps 6–7 above) and then navigate to your desired song.


9. Navigate to your desired song and click Open

As far as I know, there is no way to anchor the Menu Bar to the Now Playing screen. However, this shortcut at least eliminates the annoyance of leaving the Now Playing screen to open another song.

Another thing you may have noticed is that you must navigate to the Now Playing screen every time you open Windows Media Player 12. However, you can change the default opening screen so that Windows Media Player 12 always opens on the Now Playing screen.

To change Windows Media Player 12 default opening screen to Now Playing:

1. Right-click the Windows Media Player 12 icon on your desktop

Note: If you do not have a shortcut icon on your desktop, you can right-click the Windows Media Player 12 entry in the Start menu. Alternatively, you can create a desktop shortcut by clicking on the Windows Media Player 12 entry in the Start menu and dragging it onto the desktop.

2. Click Properties

3. In the Window Media Player Properties dialog box, under the Shortcut tab, click in the text box next to Target:

4. Navigate your cursor to the end of the text string

5. Delete the text—"prefetch:1"— that appears after the forward slash: /

6. In place of the text you have just deleted, type: "Task NowPlaying"

Note: Do not include quotation marks when you type in the above text. Also, ensure there is no space after the forward slash, but that there is a space after "Task." Finally, ensure you delete any spaces after the new text you have typed in.

7. Click Apply

8. Click OK



I hope that this tutorial will make Windows Media Player 12 a more enjoyable program to use.