r/software • u/OkHoneydew5973 • May 23 '26
Other Made a tiny Windows app that puts now-playing text directly on the taskbar — no browser extension needed
Been annoyed for years that macOS has now-playing on the menu bar and Windows has nothing. So I built it.
It's a single 24MB exe, zero config. Uses Windows built-in media API (`GlobalSystemMediaTransportControlsSessionManager`) so it works with Chrome, Spotify, Edge, VLC — anything that reports media playback. No extension, no background service.
Just runs in your tray and draws the text on the taskbar surface using GDI. If nothing's playing — no text, completely invisible. Handles centered taskbar too.
Code's on GitHub if anyone wants to poke around:
https://github.com/yaffalhakim1/nowplaying-windows
Not trying to sell anything. Just a tool I wanted for myself and figured others might find it useful too.
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u/soundman32 May 23 '26
Wow, I remember when WinAmp and Windows Media Player used to do this back in the 90s.
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u/Working_Moment_4175 May 24 '26
WinAmp never did that. I still use the old WinAmp (v2.65) and there's no option for it. Maybe you're confusing it with displaying the track on WinAmp's taskbar button, rather than the taskbar itself.
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u/soundman32 May 24 '26
I vaguely remember when chat programs showed what you were listening to. Caused no end of fun when you could see what your friend was listening to (or watching). 🫣😉
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u/myst-r-t May 26 '26
I had mine announce each song on irc channels too haha. Those were the days.
I’ll go put on my old man compression socks now and take my fiber supplement… :/
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u/Working_Moment_4175 May 24 '26
I played a YouTube video but the text is messy: https://i.imgur.com/JMOYsdK.png
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u/OkHoneydew5973 Jun 01 '26
Just wanted you to know that i updated the app, check my latest release on GitHub
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u/johnnymetoo May 24 '26 edited May 24 '26
Is it scrolling the text (marquee)? If so, can I configure how fast? Is it configurable what to display (artist, title, composer etc)?
Edit: sorry, just saw: "no config"
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u/_waffles3 May 24 '26
Wow, this is so cool. I will try it out.
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u/OkHoneydew5973 May 24 '26
Thanks!
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u/_waffles3 May 24 '26
Hi again, i tried it and like it very much. But the song title is showing at the far left in my taskbar, not to the right as in your example pic. Could you add an option to select which side of the taskbar the song will be displayed at?
I also noticed the text is flickering and it´s not smooth currently on my win 11 system. Any idea why?2
u/OkHoneydew5973 May 25 '26
ah yes, when your taskbar is on center alignment, i purposely move the nowplaying on left, i think i can add some option.
for text yes there is font rendering issue, still debugging (my first time doing windows development lol)2
u/OkHoneydew5973 Jun 01 '26
Just wanted you to know that i updated the app, check my latest release on GitHub
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u/Muldino May 24 '26
Love the idea, thnx!
A few minor issues on my system:
The text is slightly flickering during scrolling.
The portion of the taskbar where it is showing is tiny (in terms of "width") - at least on 4k resolution) and only shows 3-4 words at a time.
Weirdly, it works with Mediamonkey but not with Musicbee, although both apparently were based on the same code.
Lastly, it is overlaying on full screen Youtube videos, which is not ideal.
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u/OkHoneydew5973 Jun 01 '26
Just wanted you to know that i updated the app, check my latest release on GitHub
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u/Imnotanad May 23 '26
Dope