Music player on the Windows desktop

The widget gets its data from the same place as the Windows volume control: any app that plays sound reports the track title, cover and position to the system itself.

• Your players. Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, YouTube and other videos in any browser, videos in Steam, AIMP, foobar2000 and VLC. No plugins and no account sign-in needed.
• Working buttons. Previous, pause and next control whichever player is playing right now. The Card and Flat views also have shuffle and repeat.
• Vealo radio. When the built-in radio is playing, the widget shows “Live” instead of the time and lets you change the volume. A click on the speaker mutes the sound, a second click restores the previous volume.
• Hides when it is quiet. When nothing is playing, the widget is not on the desktop and uses no resources. The “Always on” button keeps it in place with the text “Nothing is playing”.

It turns on when you pick a view, and the look is set right next to it.

1. Open Studio: the panel hotkey, Ctrl+Shift+F by default, or click an empty spot on the desktop and then the gear.
2. The Widgets tab, the Player row: pick any view instead of “Off”.
3. Pick a style and, if you like, turn on “Always on” so the widget stays on the desktop even without music.
4. Moving: with the mouse while the Widgets tab is open, or Shift plus the right mouse button at any moment, even with the panel closed. The position is remembered.

The view decides what the widget contains, the style decides how it looks. They are chosen independently and can be combined in any way.

• Strip: title, artist and track progress in one line. It has no buttons, so clicks pass through the widget to the desktop.
• Row: cover, title, track progress and time, with previous, pause and next buttons.
• Flat: title and track progress in the centre, with a full row of buttons below, including shuffle and repeat. In any view you can hide the cover with the “Cover” button.
• Card: a large cover, the album title, shuffle, repeat and radio volume. Vinyl: the cover on a vinyl record that spins while music is playing.
• Like the other widgets except the clock: five materials (soft, torn, glitch, pixel, wire), colour from the theme or your own with an eyedropper, backdrop and outline, its own size slider. More in the features reference.
• Free: the Strip and Row views, the Soft and Torn styles. The rest are part of Pro.

• For a clean desktop, Strip works well: it is thin and does not catch clicks. Card and Vinyl look best in a free corner where the cover does not clash with the wallpaper.
• By default the widget colour follows the theme. On bright wallpapers, turn on the backdrop so the title stays readable.
• If you listen to Vealo radio, keep the widget in view: you change the volume right on it, with no need to open Studio.

All six widgets in one article: Desktop widgets for Windows. Ready desktops with widgets are in the Steam Workshop.