Mini Player toolbar buttons are greyed out in Windows Media Player ?
Published: Aug 22, 2005Updated : Mar 24, 2007
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Symptom
The mini Player mode in Windows Media Player, enables you to perform basic playback functions even if the Player is minimized. When you have enabled mini Player mode and you minimize the Player, the playback controls appear in the Windows taskbar.
This article provides the information to fix the problem where the
Mini Player toolbar buttons are greyed out, as shown in the Figure. This behavior may
be seen even though a song is currently playing.
Resolution
First, try the resolution documented at the Microsoft Windows Media Player FAQ site. Look at the FAQ item Why doesn't the mini Player work after I install Windows Media Player 10?
Quoted from the WMP FAQ page:
In some cases, the mini Player might not function or the buttons might not be available (they might appear "grayed out") after you install Windows Media Player 10. To fix the problem, try restarting your computer.
If the problem persists, do the following: Right-click an open area of the Windows taskbar (such as below the system clock), point to Toolbars, and then click Windows Media Player. This removes the check mark beside Windows Media Player and turns off mini Player mode. Restart your computer. Reinstall Windows Media Player 10 (do not try to remove your existing copy of Windows Media Player 10 first). Restart your computer again.
Re-registering WMP.DLL
If the above workarounds does not help, use this command-line given below, which does a small repair of Windows Media Player. Click Start, Run and type:
regsvr32 wmp.dll
After you press Enter to register the wmp.dll, you should get the "DllRegisterServer in wmp.dll succeeded" message.
Similarly run the following command:
regsvr32 "%programfiles%\windows media player\wmpband.dll"
Restart Windows for the changes to take effect, and try using the Mini Player mode to see if that has fixed it.
