Microsoft’s Windows Media Player does not support global hotkeys by default. It comes with a full set of hotkeys that work when the window of the media player is active but these shortcuts stop working once the player’s window is minimized or in the background of the computer desktop. Some keyboard drivers enable media key support so that the computer user can control playback with media keys on the keyboard. There is however no solution for users without media keyboards.
WMP Keys is a plugin for Windows Media Player 12, Windows Media Player 11 and 10 that adds global hotkey support to the media player. The plugin is supplied as a msi file which needs to be installed when the media player is not open. It then needs to be activated after installation in the player’s options.
This is done in Windows Media Player 12 by clicking on Organize > Options. This should open the options menu with a plug-ins tab. The WMP Keys plugin is listed under background plugins. Placing a checkmark in the box and clicking the apply button will activate the global hotkeys for Windows Media Player.
The default hotkeys are:
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]
These hotkeys can be changed by clicking on the Properties button in the same menu.
WMP Keys can be downloaded from its Sourceforge project website.
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