Editing Windows Media Player (section)

===Shell integration===
The player has [[Windows Explorer]] shell integration to add files and playlist to the ''Now Playing'' pane and other playlists can be controlled from the Windows Explorer shell itself, via right-click menu. The My Music folder also includes a separate ''My Playlists'' folder where playlists are maintained. When the player is closed and reopened, simply clicking the play button restores the last playlist even if it was not saved. Starting with Windows Media Player 10, the playlist pane is also visible from the Library view. [[AutoPlay]] handlers in Windows expose various Windows Media Player tasks.

[[File:Windows Media Player 11 in MiniMode - XP, Vista.png|thumb|left|Windows Media Player 11 running in mini-mode in Windows Vista and Windows XP respectively (notice the difference in the logo)]]

Up to version 11, it featured a taskbar-mounted ''Mini-mode'' in which the most common media control buttons are presented as a toolbar on the Windows [[taskbar]]. Flyout windows can display media information, the active visualization or the video being played back. Mini-mode was introduced as a shell player powertoy for Windows Media Player 8 in [[Windows XP]] and integrated later into WMP 9 Series. Mini-mode has been removed in Windows Media Player 12 in favor of controls in the taskbar's interactive thumbnail preview which lacks volume control, a progress bar and information displayed whenever a new song is played. Despite this, however, Mini-mode can be restored in Windows Media Player 12 by registering the wmpband.dll file from Windows Media Player 11.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.askvg.com/how-to-get-windows-media-player-wmp-taskbar-toolbar-back-in-windows-7/ |title=How to Get Windows Media Player (WMP) 12 Taskbar Toolbar (Taskband) Back in Windows 7 and Later? – AskVG |work=AskVG |first=Vishal |last=Gupta |date=January 2010 |access-date=2023-04-12 }}</ref>

The user interface has been redesigned in Windows Media Player 12 such that the ''Now Playing'' view plays media in a separate minimalist window with floating playback controls, and also gives access to the current playlist, visualizations, and enhancements.<ref name="ArsWMP12"/> Enhancements are housed in individual undocked windows. The library view includes the rest of the media management functions. It also can preview songs from the library when users hover over the media file and click the Preview button.<ref name="ArsWMP12"/> Windows Media Player 12 can play unprotected songs from the [[iTunes]] library. As previously mentioned, taskbar-integrated mini-mode has been replaced with controls in the taskbar's interactive thumbnail preview (called the ''Thumbnail Toolbar''),<ref>{{cite web |url=https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd942846.aspx#id0420081 |title=Introducing The Taskbar APIs |work=[[MSDN Magazine]] |publisher=[[Microsoft]] |first1=Yochay |last1=Kiriaty |first2=Sasha |last2=Goldshtein |date=July 2009 |at=Thumbnail Toolbars |access-date=2015-04-23 |archive-date=2015-03-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150325042123/https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd942846.aspx#id0420081 |url-status=live }}</ref> albeit minus the volume control function, track and album information shown whenever a new song is played and the progress bar. The taskbar icon also supports jump lists introduced in [[Windows 7]].

[[File:Windows Media Player 12 live preview.png|thumb|The thumbnail viewer of Windows Media Player 12 in [[Windows 7]]]]