Jay Marcyes

Microsoft's Windows Media Player Development team hates my guts. That is the only reason I can think of for why they took from me the only two features I actually used in Windows Media Player in the new WMP version 11 beta 3.

Actually, they removed one of the features in WMP 10, I didn't like it then, even going so far as to not bother with the upgrade. But when the betas of version 11 started hitting the net, the temptation to try out the newest, shiniest version of WMP was too great and I upgraded.

The first feature I used was the option of only allowing the player to remain on top when in skin mode. WMP 10 and now 11 only have the option of allowing the player on top all the time, which is annoying because you always have to minimize the player to select a new video when the player is at the normal application size. You can't Alt-tab or anything because the player is always on top.

It feels inconvenient to me to have to always minimize the player. On the other hand, when the player is in skin mode I want it to always be on top so I can put it in a corner and forget about it. It doesn't make any sense to me why they got rid of the feature in the options menu. This is the feature that kept me from upgrading from 9 to 10. I mean seriously? Am I the only person that uses the skin mode? I have the quicksilver skin (which is the smallest, least intrusive skin I have found for WMP) and I shrink it down and put it in the corner so I can watch videos and stuff while I am working on something else. It should be noted that I only use WMP when I want to watch videos, I have other applications that I use to listen to music.

The second feature was just recently removed in WMP 11 beta 3. well, it wasn't as much a feature removal as the team just assigned a button to have a different function. The little arrow button on the bottom right hand corner used to take you to the skin mode, now it just shrinks the application to some mini player that has nothing to do with the skin mode and has no support for watching videos. I guess it is designed just for music, like the mini itunes interface. WHY? Why did they do this? That little button in the corner has done the same thing for as long as I have used WMP. I swear it has to be a User Interface no-no to keep the the same button but change its function like that.

Now the only way I have found to get to the skin mode easily is to hit CTRL-2 which annoys me because I always hit the button first, then I have to maximize it again and then hit CTRL-2. I haven't been able to fix this either, so if anyone knows where this can be changed, be it in the registry or wherever, please let me know.

The last complaint I have is that there is no way to turn off their new music store thing, even Apple let's you turn the store off.

I don't just come here to complain though, I offer a solution to the first problem. If you would also like your WMP to be on top while in skin mode but not any other time, go into the preferences and set WMP to always be on top. Then fire up Regedit (start -> Run -> regedit.exe) and make your way over to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ MediaPlayer \ Preferences

now change AlwaysOnTopVTenApp to 0 while leaving everything else the same. Now close out Regedit and WMP should only ever float above everything while in skin mode.

Disclaimer: I am not responsible if you hose your system while using Regedit, therefore make a backup of your registry before attempting this or any other registry tweak. A backup can be made by going to File->export. And your registry can be restored by going to File->Import. That is all.