The majority of Windows users use the default Windows Media Player to play audio and video files. Even though there are plenty of better alternatives around, none of them come close to Windows Media Payer’s beautiful and easy-to-use interface.
Microsoft has dropped some small features from Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10 operating systems. One of them is the WMP taskbar toolbar.
It’s a well-known fact that the Windows Media Player 12 (WMP 12) present in Windows 10/8/7 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 Vista and XP users are missing this handy toolbar in Windows 7, here is a master guide to help you get the taskbar toolbar in Windows 10/8/7 with all the features. Make sure you follow all the steps correctly to get the taskbar toolbar.
Enable Windows Media Player taskbar toolbar in Windows 10/8/7
How to get Windows Media Player Taskbar Toolbar in Windows 10/8/7:
Step 1: Download the wmpband.dll file from here. To download wmpband.dll (x64) visit this link. Make sure you download the right version of wmpband.dll file.
Step 2: Copy the file to C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player folder.
Step 3: Now, you need to make sure that the Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service is disabled. Type in Services in the Start menu search box and then hit enter to launch the Services window. Locate the Windows Media Player Network Sharing service and stop it.
Step 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 10/8/7 drive.
Wait for a few seconds to see the success message.
Step 5: Launch WMP and minimize it.
Step 6: Right-click on the Taskbar, go to Toolbars, and then select Windows Media Player. Click Yes if you get the “The Windows Media Player toolbar isn’t compatible with this version of Windows” message.
Step 7: You are done! You should see the Windows Media Player toolbar in your taskbar now.
Thanks for the tip, Justin Buser.
Harry says
Still an awesome post after all these years
Karthickeyan RM says
After windows restart the toolbar is not available..we need to select it again to work…any tips for this to always available when restart?
unodelacruz says
Thank you! Works great.
Ravi says
great, thanks
WalkingBooch1 says
I get a permission error? Any ideas?
ali says
Wooooow! Thank you. It’s work fine on window 10 latest update.
Bessem says
It worked….
Awsome!!!!
Thank you
admin says
Roger, thanks for the heads up. Glad to know that it’s working on Windows 10 version 2004 as well. Thank you, again.
Roger II G. says
Works just fine on windows 10 OS BUILD 19041.450. Thank you!
Peter Robertson says
It works only intermittently, even with all the “fixes” suggested here.
It NEVER works after rebooting. I have to deselect and then reselect Toolbars/Windows Media Player every single reboot to have a chance of it working.
Even then, it works only about 50% of the time. When it fails, the space for it in the toolbar appears, but is blank and no amount of fiddling with the Toolbars menu has any effect.
RICARDO MARTINS DA SILVA says
Cool!!
zack says
still working in Windows 10 version 2004/May 2020 Update!! very cool :) i missed this feature
admin says
Jota, thanks for confirming that it’s still working. Glad to know that. Should help others as well.
Jota says
Great it worked 64x Windows 10
Thanks man !
Ashok says
Awesome!!! :)
tao says
Apparently, there are a few steps missing for it to work on my 64-bit Win10.
I found the extra steps here:
askvg.com/how-to-get-windows-media-player-wmp-taskbar-toolbar-back-in-windows-7/
Main differences:
a) we need to copy the 64-bit wmpband.dll to both WMP folders, “Program Files” and “Program Files (x86)”
b) the regsvr32 command must be run for BOTH files (one in each folder)
c) the Windows Service “Windows Media Player Network Sharing” must be restarted
NOW it’s working.
Lucy says
Awesome. Asanti sana (thank you!!)
jo says
Well Done it works well on the Windows 10. x64
Steven Willian says
Work…
windows 10 64 bit home edition
tks
Shiblee says
Thanks dear for this helpful tip.
Bill Berry says
Thank you! It worked. Just remember there are two folders, one “Program Files” and two, “Program Files (x86). I copied both dynamic links and copied the each of them into their respective Windows Media Player folders.
Salazar Getty says
It is ridiculous to suggest that Media Player Classic doesn’t come close to “Windows Media Player’s beautiful and easy-to-use interface.” MPC is easier to use and beautiful in it’s design simplicity. It basically started by taking the last good media player made by MS (WMP 6.4) and just kept updating and improving the functionality while refusing to adapt the increasingly terrible design and interface choices made by Microsoft’s retarded monkey team (aka the Windows Media Player guys.) If any of you are still using WMP, search for and download K-lite codec pack and install with all the defaults. After an hour of using MPC, you will never want to use WMP again. If you are like me, you will even remove Windows Media Player via “Add/Remove Windows Components (XP)” or “Turn Windows features on or off (Vista/7).”
zappafrank says
Also, seems to be an issue where after a bit, I no longer can “restore” to the library view either from the minimized toolbar or the pinned icon on the taskbar. It will expand to the visualization view, but when I try to switch back to library view, nothing happens. Nor can I close WMP.
In order to close WMP, I have to unpin the toolbar then expand WMP from the square taskbar icon and close it. Only then can I get the library view back, by opening WMP up fresh, after unpinning the old style toolbar.
zappafrank says
Awesome!!
Thanks so much
One issue, though: when I hover over the taskbar, none of the text scrolls like it used to, which means titles, etc are getting cutting off.
Is there a way to change this?
SS says
i now have the windows media player option in toolbars and have checked it but when minimize WMP it does not change to the toolbar?
Joe says
OS is Win 7 Pro, SP1
Followed all the instructions. I can get the mini-toolbar, but it takes a lot of steps to do so even though the “Lock Toolbars” is selected.
1- Open WMP
2- Right click and select “Toolbars”
3- UN-SELECT WMP
4- Right click and select “Toolbars’
5- RE-SELECT WMP
I might have to do this several times before the mini-toolbar shows up.
Is this the way it is supposed to work? If not, any idea what’s going on and how to fix?
Rania says
That’s cool,but any idea why videos are not displaying in the toolbar?
joaquim says
why the mini toolbar is only showed when the windows media player is minimizade?(i’m testing it)
Apurva says
Thank you !!! It worked perfectly even for Windows 8.1 :)
Anne says
Hi kindly disregard my previous comment. It works now!
The line should be:
regsvr32 “%programfiles%\Windows Media Player\wmpband.dll”
without the “c:\”… I suggest you remove or update that part of your instructions as it is confusing.
Anne says
I am getting this error:
“The module “”C:\Program” failed to load
Make sure the binary is stored at the specified path or debug it to check for problems with the binary or dependent .DLL files.
The specified module could not be found.”
Eva says
Works perfectly!! Admin have a cup of coffee on me :-)
If you are getting the 0*80070005 it’s because you are not running command prompt as an administrator.
Thank you!!
Dave says
Ever since i did this wmp crashes and my computer too – bad!!
How can i reverse this??
Udel says
works perfectly, thanks!!!!!
ds says
Screw this, it’s not working. I did exactly as instructed, i even typed manually that command, but, in the end, it doesn’t display the wmp bar, only an empty space.
Cyber Toon says
EVERYONE! The reason it doesn’t work is because the quotes are automatically converted to curly quotes, and curly quotes don’t work with commands. You need to remove the quotes then place them again to get it to work. Or just type it manually.
Pedro Cunha says
Yeah, istn working for windows 8….
Why in hell microsoft removed that feature? >.<
sriram says
start CMD as administrator
type this and enter
For 32-bit Windows users – regsvr32 “%programfiles%\Windows Media Player\wmpband.dll”
For 64-bit Windows users – regsvr32 “%programfiles(x86)%\Windows Media Player\wmpband.dll”
it works 100%
sriram says
AWESOME..THANK YOU :D works like a charm <3B)\m/
qqqq says
You guys rock!
And to anyone, if you get an error 0x80020009 from regsvr32, it’s because you’re not running cmd as an administrator.
ABDUL SHAFEEQUE says
me to, plz help me …. Black blank screen
ashish says
it is display in taskbar but in is not displya video ??? how to solve this problem
Amirul says
thanks man its working but cannot open a video thought it shows only black blank tiny screen but worth for the music!
window 7 pro
Jason says
Thank you very very much. Worked like a charm. That was starting to irritate me so I had to look it up ;)
admin says
@ I haven’t tested the method on Windows 8 OS. So, sorry, I can’t confirm that it works on Windows 8.
Daniel Postoronka says
Yeah, umm…It didn’t work for me. But I used Windows 8 to do this, is that the problem? That I’m not using Windows 7 and it only works with that???
Michael Lyman says
How do you do this in Windows 8 64 bit Pro Pack? Thanks!
Ali says
thanks so much :) i needed this!
Beibee Gee says
thank you!!!, it really helped me a lot! ^_^
ronald says
tnx working in 32 bit windows 7 pro
french guy says
it helped me a lot, for french users the service is called service partage reseau du lecteur […]
thanks again, it’s awesome
Carol says
I tried this too and it didn’t work unti I right clicked the task bar and unchecked Lock the taskbar then right clicked again and saw the wmp under the toolbar options. Hope it helps!
aquaq says
I can’t get services.exe running. I double click on it, but nothing happens. What went wrong?
Devon says
Awesome…..I don’t usually take the time to comment, but thank you Justin and the author of this write-up!
Hosein says
Thanks veeeery much
mammd kaf bor says
HI. my win7 is a x64 one but this file is for a x86. pls. add the other one. after all. THANK UUUUUUUUU.
k1ll3r_c0w80y says
Thank You
me says
still doesnt work wtf got the succeed message and restarted wmp network sharing and still nothing.y me y me lord?
smegger says
the x64 file has been removed
Kev says
Amazing, worked perfectly. +respect
182 says
yeahhh…..
its working
Corto Maltes says
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.
Snejina says
thanks!
paboy says
Thanks. I was able to get the taskbar toolbar in Windows 7 BUT, there is no image (animation). It is just a black screen.
harshil sharma says
really worked//……..thenxxxx gr8 wrk…
Emiy says
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
Grateful says
Works great! Thanks a lot. :)
Kevalin says
Thank you sooo much, I have been waiting for this for such a long time. Big thumbs up to Justin Buser :)
Ashish says
Works great.
Had an error first, but then i ran the command prompt as the administrator and it worked.
Nice job, Thanks.
Hesham Zeid says
Done!, it worked for me .
Thank u
really great work
Richy says
Nice job
Charles says
Works for me – the x64 instructions. Sweet.
Haroon says
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”
Haroon says
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?
Charlie says
Thx !! It works now with wmpband x64 version ;)
Mark says
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.
joey says
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.
Robin says
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
1234 says
great thanks!
amruta deshmukh says
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
Jay209 says
sorry post 26
Jay209 says
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
Chris J says
Is there a way to undo this, as my WMP is all messed up and playback is extremely slow in starting the files?
Chris J says
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!
OlgaKhi says
Well done! Thanks a lot!
devengines says
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.
Stefan says
@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.
V Frustrated>:( says
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??
Alex says
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 :P
Alexia says
thanks very much! It works well :)
Jack Reynolds says
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.
psyche says
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…
mallaccra says
i got the same issue as Stephen C. any solution guys?
maaz says
same as stephen c no media player option HELP ME
Svjatoslav says
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 ?
Stephen C says
Windows Media Player not in toolbars even after succeeded message.
Anyone know what’s wrong?
Ricki says
got the success thing and opened and minimized wmp, right clicked on taskbar and chose toolbars…wmp is not a choice…any suggestions?
BinBin says
Great!!! It work for me at first time I tried.. Thanks very much!!!
fauxfire says
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
John says
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.
Loon says
THANKS! works perfectly!
and THANKS to Justin Buser too! =D
allan says
works here for me…it’s great…thanks a lot..
Robert says
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).
Dylon88 says
got to the point of .. regsvr32 “c:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmpband.dll” in the cmd prompt .. didnt work :/ .. got error code 0x80070005 .. any thoughts ??
Ben says
Cant get it to work for me even after confirmation screen
Miraz says
Working g8 ,thanks…
Nate Shoffner says
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”.
sumwin says
Yes, worked for me same with Mivadaendigital it will stuck even close WMP.
mividaendigital says
it worked for me but now the taskbar is stuck all the time even when i close WMP
peter burleigh says
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
DA says
Doesn’t work for me either!
mindika says
Never works for me