Media Keyboard Support For Unsupported Media Players

Martin Brinkmann
Jan 23, 2009
Updated • May 8, 2014
Software, Windows software
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7

So called media keyboards ship with additional keys or multi-functional keys that users can make use of to control media playback on their systems.

While they are most of the time designed to manage media playback exclusively, some keyboards offer additional keys that enable you to control other programs, an email client for exmaple.

The most common keys are those to control music on the computer and to open a web browser or the email client.

Media keys on a keyboard cannot be used unless drivers are installed that add the functionality to the system. Without the driver, the keys may not work at all or only in a limited way.

There is a second requirement as well. Media programs need to support these special keys, and if they don't, pressing them won't have any effect on the system.

Not all media players come with that functionality, and if your favorite player does not, then you cannot make use of the extra keys unless you install a third-party application that adds the functionality to the PC.

Media Keyboard 2 is a software program that adds support for media keys in several media players that do not support those keys by design. It sits between the media keys and the program it supports, so that each key press is executed by the program as if it would support these keys natively.

The software adds media key support for the following applications: VLC Media Player, XMPlay, Winamp Classic, FreeAMP, 1by1, Xion and Zinf.

Media Keyboard adds support for the play, pause, stop, previous and next media keys in the listed applications. The software uses less than four Megabytes of computer memory while running and will run on all Windows operating systems from Windows 95 to Windows XP.

Please note that the program has not been updated since 2009, and that the program homepage is not available anymore. We have uploaded the latest working version of Media Keyboard 2 Media Player to our own server. You can download the file with a click on the following link: (Download Removed)

We do not support the program in any way or guarantee that it will work properly on your system. Note that Vista was the last operating system listed as supported by the author of the application. While that does not mean necessarily that it won't work under newer versions of Windows, there is no guarantee that it will or that all of its functionality will.

Verdict

If you are using a media keyboard and noticed that your favorite music or video player does not support it, then you may want to give Media Keyboard 2 Media Player a try as it may resolve that issue for you.

Summary
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Author Rating
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3.5 based on 3 votes
Software Name
Media Keyboard 2
Operating System
Windows
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Comments

  1. alf said on January 26, 2009 at 5:31 pm
    Reply

    Thanks for finding this one, it`s a really useful program! But it`s called “Media Keyboard 2 Media Player” (2=to).

  2. Roman ShaRP said on January 25, 2009 at 11:48 pm
    Reply

    I do this on A4 Tech keyboards my way:
    1) set up keyboard driver to send some key combination code on media key press – “Ctrl-Alt-Right” for the “Next track” for example.
    2) set up Player to recognize “Ctrl-Alt-Right” as “Next track” command.

    I find that this can have one advantage over the classic media key support: I programmed my “Swiss knife” Windows PowerPro to generate “Ctrl-Alt-Right” on the mouse left click – right click “chord”, pressing left button and then pressing right. So now I can switch to the next track with simple clicks, without lifting my hand from mouse and even without additional buttons on mouse :)

  3. garbanzo said on January 24, 2009 at 10:15 pm
    Reply

    @-=Ben=-

    songbird already has global hotkey support. if you can’t get it to work natively with your multimedia keys, either remap them to other keys, or just use a tiny hotkey app like HoeKey or Hotkey Master to do the extra work for you.

    both those hotkey apps can also send winapi messages to apps like iTunes, letting you set global hotkeys for controlling them, too.

  4. -=Ben=- said on January 23, 2009 at 7:16 pm
    Reply

    Where is Songbird support?
    It is my favorite media player.
    http://www.last.fm/user/BenOnUserstyles

    -=Ben=-

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