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Put Windows Media Player in Party Mode
Posted by Adam Pash at 3:00 AM on December 14, 2007
You've put together the perfect holiday playlist for your office party and don't want anyone to mess with your computer while the music's pumping? The How-To Geek weblog highlights a lesser-known feature of Windows Media Player that allows you to lock the screen in fullscreen mode, enter a 4-digit PIN, and leave your computer safely pumping out tunes. It's not groundbreaking, but I can say that I do wish iTunes had something similar for fullscreen Cover Flow mode.
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
Chimaera
Posted 11:35 AM 13/12/07
Is this only on Vista? I'm running WMP 11 on XP SP2, and there's no such icon.
Chimaera
tcolberg
Posted 1:24 PM 13/12/07
Yeah, it's Vista only. Just compared XP MCE 2k5 vs Vista.
tcolberg
Kafka
Posted 1:22 PM 13/12/07
I'm confused; can't I just hit windows+L while it's playing? That certainly works with winamp running.
Kafka
Gonzie
Posted 1:15 PM 13/12/07
@binglyjoe
and more interestingly, if you have built in apple remote support you can control iTunes using it through the screensaver
Gonzie
Sanja
Posted 12:33 PM 13/12/07
This reminds me a recent quote from the Russian Bash.Org ([bash.org.ru])
- I've invented perfect alarm clock!
- ?!
- You need to invoke console, make 'sudo', than kill 'cron', than kill the mp3 player process to turn the sound off in the morning!
- Does it have bugs?
- Yes. The speakers can be simply plugged off...
Sanja
edythemighty
Posted 12:32 PM 13/12/07
:C Out in da dust...
edythemighty
edythemighty
Posted 12:32 PM 13/12/07
@Chimaera: Not sure about the password lock thing, but I'm running XP MCE and I have Party Mode
edythemighty
mbierman
Posted 12:20 PM 13/12/07
I don't see that icon either. Nice feature though.
mbierman
JayEff
Posted 12:18 PM 13/12/07
I love Futurama too!
JayEff
BingleyJoe
Posted 12:13 PM 13/12/07
"I do wish iTunes had something similar for fullscreen Cover Flow mode."
It's not quite the same thing, but you could always just require a password to disable the screensaver and then setup a hot-corner to activate it immediately..
BingleyJoe
Chimaera
Posted 2:26 PM 13/12/07
@Kafka: Certainly could. I think the idea here was to lock while retaining the visualizer.
Chimaera
Posco Grubb
Posted 2:12 PM 13/12/07
But the real story would be the presumably many ways to hack the hack, assuming that the office dullard came up with the playlist. Sanja already mentioned one, although it doesn't really permit playing of better music...
Posco Grubb
suburbancowboy
Posted 3:26 PM 13/12/07
Media Monkey has a party mode. That program kicks Media Player and iTunes collective asses.
suburbancowboy
Mythokia
Posted 8:04 PM 13/12/07
I usually just lock my computer.
Mythokia
Marcus
Posted 7:29 PM 13/12/07
I would imagine that one could write a simple script that would require a password to leave front row. If only I had any such ability... takers?
Marcus
majortom1981
Posted 5:32 AM 14/12/07
I am using vista and have no such feature.
majortom1981
gila.monster
Posted 7:00 AM 14/12/07
This feature doesn't work. You can lock it, but all you have to do is press Ctrl + Alt + Del and then hit cancel and it takes the lock off. Useless feature because of this. Cool in theory. Takes about 2 seconds to get out of it.
gila.monster
TheJalu
Posted 2:59 PM 13/12/07
You can lock the computer using Windows+L and then noone can change anything because they need your password to get access to the computer. Therfore this app is useless ;)
TheJalu
quikboy
Posted 2:23 PM 14/12/07
Yay! Neat feature. I'll be sure to try it.
WMP 11 is practically the best media management/playback program. It's not as clunky as iTunes, and does a ton of functions.
quikboy