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Hello, anyone knows a media player, similar to the old WMP 11 - which had the taskbar toolbar, to be used with Windows 7? The current WMP12 does not support this feature :(

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Short version: , is right that people have tried a DLL-based restore for the old WMP11 taskbar band, but that route is a hack and can be fragile. Here are safer options and the key things to understand so the problem can be solved without breaking Explorer.

The old WMP "taskbar toolbar" was a deskband: a COM DLL loaded in-process by explorer.exe. That has two important consequences — the DLL must match Explorer's bitness (32 vs 64 bit), and any unstable/unsigned code runs inside Explorer and can crash or weaken the shell. That is why many old deskbands stop working on modern installs and why replacing system DLLs is risky. If anyone attempts that trick, make a full system restore point and only use code from well-known authors.

Safer alternatives that give the same convenience

  • Use a player with Windows 7 taskbar integration (thumbnail toolbar and jump list). Most modern players expose play/pause/prev/next in the taskbar thumbnail without touching Explorer. VLC is a common example; other extensible players (foobar2000, Winamp) have community components/plugins that add Win7 taskbar controls.
  • Use global hotkeys or hardware media keys — they work regardless of the taskbar UI and are supported by most players.
  • Look for a maintained third-party controller app that talks to your player over its remote/control API, rather than trying to inject a toolbar into Explorer.

Quick troubleshooting checklist if a player claims taskbar support but you see nothing:

  • Confirm 32/64 bit compatibility (Explorer is 64-bit on x64 systems).
  • Ensure you installed the player (not just a portable copy) so shell integration can register.
  • Restart explorer.exe after installing integrations.
  • Avoid unmaintained deskband utilities — prefer signed, actively maintained tools.

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Member Avatar for Ritesh_4

thx pritaeas, thou I have some doubts whether this dll thing is safe for use ;)
Is there no multimedia software which has such toolbars by default when installed instead?

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