How To Enable Windows Media Player 12 Taskbar Toolbar In Windows 7 (Must Try)
Posted January 9, 2010 – 11:45 am in: Windows 7 GuidesIt’s a well known fact that the Windows Media Player 12 (WMP 12) present in Windows 7 doesn’t come with the taskbar toolbar. Windows Media Player Taskbar Toolbar, if you don’t know, is a small toolbar that appears in the taskbar when you minimize Windows Media Player.
As many of the Vista and XP users are missing this handy toolbar in Windows 7, here is a master guide to help you get taskbar toolbar in Windows 7 with all features.
How to get Windows Media Player Taskbar Toolbar in Windows 7:
1. Download the wmpband.dll file from here.
2. Copy the file to C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player folder.
3. Now, you need to make sure that Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service is disabled. Type in Services in Start menu search box and then hit enter to launch Services window. Locate Windows Media Player Network Sharing service and stop it.
4. Open the Command Prompt as administrator and execute the following command:
regsvr32 "c:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmpband.dll"
Here change “c” your Windows 7 drive.
Wait for a few seconds to see the succeed message.
5. Launch WMP and minimize it.
6. Right-click on the Taskbar, go to Toolbars and then select Windows Media Player. Click Yes if you are prompted with “The Windows Media Player toolbar isn’t compatible with this version of Windows” message.
7. You are done! You should see the Windows Media Player toolbar in your taskbar now.
Thanks for the tip Justin Buser.
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55 Comments
Never works for me
Doesn’t work for me either!
thank you, that worked first time for me, i was wondering about it, but i didnt think too much about it until i saw this, thanks again
it worked for me but now the taskbar is stuck all the time even when i close WMP
Yes, worked for me same with Mivadaendigital it will stuck even close WMP.
Works perfectly fine. To everybody who is having problems with it “sticking” to the taskbar, simply right-click on the taskbar, go to “toolbars” and uncheck “Windows Media Player”.
Working g8 ,thanks…
Cant get it to work for me even after confirmation screen
got to the point of .. regsvr32 “c:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmpband.dll” in the cmd prompt .. didnt work :/ .. got error code 0×80070005 .. any thoughts ??
For those that can’t get the regsvr32 command to work… Make sure the cmd prompt has administrative privilages (right-click and run as administrator).
works here for me…it’s great…thanks a lot..
THANKS! works perfectly!
and THANKS to Justin Buser too! =D
THANK YOU VERY MUCH IT WORKED !!!! For people who get error message like “wrong command” TRY TO TYPE THE COMMAND MANUALLY.Do not copy past.Make sure to right click and run CMD as administrator.This hack works 10000% thank you so much.
has anyone gotten the ” The module (a shit load of what looks like Chinese letters )Failed to load.
Make sure the pinary is stored atthe specified path or debug it to check for problems with the pinary or dependent .DLL files
The specified module could not be found.
little blue ok box
Great!!! It work for me at first time I tried.. Thanks very much!!!
got the success thing and opened and minimized wmp, right clicked on taskbar and chose toolbars…wmp is not a choice…any suggestions?
Windows Media Player not in toolbars even after succeeded message.
Anyone know what’s wrong?
I’ve got same problem as Ricki and Stephen do : after procedure in DOS windows is succeeded i do right click on the task bar, then choose toolbars and there is no Windows Media Player. I’ve tried rebooting, repeating the procedure with WMP off during it – but no luck. Any suggestions ?
same as stephen c no media player option HELP ME
i got the same issue as Stephen C. any solution guys?
If you’re running on x64 version of Win 7 then get the x64 version of the wmpband.dll file from this link..
http://depositfiles.com/files/y9segjyql
For those of you who cant get it to work even after the regsvr32 succeed pop-up appears…
If you are still having trouble with getting it to appear even after the “regsvr32 succeed” window is coming up, make sure you have the right directory selected.
First, type this: cd \windows\system32
Then type the regsvr32 command. Hopefully that should help.
thanks very much! It works well
For those of you still having trouble even after the regsvr32 succeed pop-up appears then here was my solution to the problem:
Well for those with x64 version of Win 7, you should have a Program Files (x86). Copy and paste “wmpband.dll” to the Windows Media Player in Program Files (x86) then type in the command prompt (remember to run as administrator):
regsvr32 “c:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Media Player\wmpband.dll”
Should work now. This was how I fixed mine
everytime i do it i get `c:\program` is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.
what did i do wrong??
@V Frustrated>:(
When you copy-paste the regsvr32 command, the quotes are wrong. They are curly and should be straight, most editors convert straight to curly automatically.
Either type the command in manually, or copy-paste and then replace the curly double-quotes with straight double-quotes.
meh. I tried the first version of this fix for 32bit, everything went well cept the toolbar option didnt show up. Then I tried doing it via (x86) folder [im 64b] and still no toolbar option. =|. All I really wanted was the little screen down there but i suppose i can do it the old fashioned way of ‘always on top’ …. bleh.
Well done! Thanks a lot!
I’ve tried all the add-on advice but I still don’t see the option in the taskbar pop-up! It’s all very frustrating!
Is there a way to undo this, as my WMP is all messed up and playback is extremely slow in starting the files?
Post only worked when i changed the view on the player to show the album art work THANKS and after p download the other file for the windows X86 folder
sorry post 26
Hey guys i too have the same problem…when i right click and select toolbar dont see the option of Windows Media Player…any suggestions…plz plz plz help
great thanks!
It worked for me, thanks.
Tried to put the .dll into the x86 folder and cmd it but din’t work, in the normal folder it worked, with the x64 version of the dll.
#Windows 7 x64
Yup it worked for me. Had to remember to restart WMP (silly me forgot to close it first) and then uncheck and recheck the toolbar option and it appeared. Thanks.
I had the same problem too – install went great, no WMP in Taskbar toolbar menu. I closed WMP, made sure it wasn’t running any more (Task Manager), re-ran the regsv command, the re-started the Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service, and then it worked. I think restarting the sharing service got it to work.
Thx !! It works now with wmpband x64 version
Thanks for this!
But I didn’t realize that not only will the little player appear in the task bar, but the minimized bar will also stay there; it wouldn’t be replaced by the little player like it used to in Windows 11.
And that takes up twice the space in the task bar.
Is there a way to fix this?
Never mind. I just needed to close the window, and I could still play the file in the taskbar player.
And when I don’t want the taskbar player, I just uncheck “Windows Media Player” by right-clicking and selecting “Toolbars”
Works for me – the x64 instructions. Sweet.
Nice job
Done!, it worked for me .
Thank u
really great work
Works great.
Had an error first, but then i ran the command prompt as the administrator and it worked.
Nice job, Thanks.
Thank you sooo much, I have been waiting for this for such a long time. Big thumbs up to Justin Buser
Works great! Thanks a lot.
I just mega failed, got x64 Win 7 and forgot that there was a (x86) folder with WMP in there as well
This is pretty crucial, and a tip above said that change the visualisation to Album artwork and it worked for me after about half an hour of trying. 
Hope that helps for anyone who’s struggling
really worked//……..thenxxxx gr8 wrk…
Thanks. I was able to get the taskbar toolbar in Windows 7 BUT, there is no image (animation). It is just a black screen.
thanks!
It’s working! Thanx to all comments posted by the people who, helped me to enable the silly (but cool and practical) little wmp toolbar, and i would just like to add to the list of complaints, windows is pretty contradictory: It’s all very ‘autistic’ and sqare, but they can’t provide an accurate(straight forward) fix for this LITTLE problem.
I needed 2 different sites + 5 or 6 comments here to manage…..we love u windows, u never fail to amaze.
yeahhh…..
its working
Amazing, worked perfectly. +respect
the x64 file has been removed
still doesnt work wtf got the succeed message and restarted wmp network sharing and still nothing.y me y me lord?