Getting Back Windows Media Player Toolbar on Windows 7

Windows Media Player 12 is the new and default Media Player version on Windows 7. Not included however, is the taskbar toolbar option which was available on the previous versions of Media Player particularly WMP 11, the last version with the taskbar capability. For those who like the taskbar integration, here are the steps that we can take to make it possible.

Basically, you will have to downgrade Windows Media Player 12 to 11. To begin, follow these steps:

1. Right click on computer and click manage. Then follow through Services and Applications > Services. Alternatively you can use the Windows Start Search function found on the Start Button Menu and type services.msc. 

Once there, right click on "Windows Media Player Network Sharing" and choose "stop". 


2. Now you will need to "take ownership" of the following files/folders:

• "Windows Media Player" folder in the "Program Files" folder
• All files starting with wmp in the "Windows\System32" folder
• wmploc.dll.mui file in "Windows\System32\en-US" folder
  

To take ownership of the said files, you can download this registry file. Just double click on the "Add Take Ownership Option" file and add to the registry.


3. Download this WMP 11 installation file and run the executable and choose the restart later option.


4. Now to delete the installed versions in the registry. If you prefer not to do it manually, download this registry file to make things easy.



5. And that's it!!! Enjoy Media Player 11 with the taskbar toolbar option.


Here is an image of the toolbar WMP 11 in action.


image courtesy of ASKVG

 

full tutorial/tip from askvg