How to Make VLC the Top Window when playing a movie?

[Guest]

When I open a file I want VLC to automatically pop-up and be the top window.

As of now this only happens when I initially open VLC the first time when launching a movie file.

How can I get VLC to appear by itself without having to find the VLC icon on the toolbar and manually click it to accomplish this? thanks

[Guest]

sorry maybe i should be more specific....2 questions:

1. I don't want a new VLC to open every time I open a file with VLC. How can I set it so the same open window plays each movie I open?

2. When I open a movie in windows explorer or wherever I want VLC to go to the front every time (not just on the first time I open it).

thanks for any help!

[ipkiss]

1) Settings --> Preferences... --> Advanced --> Other --> (check Advanced options) --> Allow only one running instance.

2) If you want the video to stay always on top, go to Settings --> Preferences... --> Video --> Always on top

[Guest]

thanks ipkiss....

regarding #2, I only want the window to come to the front upon opening a file. I don't want it in front permanently.

simply put, i want it to do what WMP does where the player comes to the front when opening a new file. I don't want it permanently on top and I don;t want to have to maximize it or bring it to the front by clicking the toolbar icon every time I open a new file via the existing open VLC player.

is this possible? thanks again

[dncholas]

I know this thread is very old (5 years) but was the only thread I could find (in all of Google) where someone is trying to do what I want also. Basically this is for anyone in the future to find and maybe will help you. Just like the person who started this thread I hate how every time I double click to open a video VLC doesn't automatically popup and open and I have to manually open it except for the 1st initial video that will popup and open but all after wont. Very irritating. Also I don't want VLC to be on top of everything else permenantly because you have to keep minimizing it. What I found that works well and probably the closest option you can get to this is this..

tools/ preferences/ click (show settings) "all"/ click "playlist"/ uncheck everything but "play and exit"

This will give the same effect and works as close as you're going to get with having each new video popup like we would like. It just closes each time without you having to close or manually open for the next video playing.

Considering ALL other video playback programs open up each time you click a new video you'd think VLC would automatically or have this option but honestly using this way is even better because now you don't have to minimize it or click outside of the VLC window to see the video files underneath. It simply vanishes each time. I've been using this way all day testing and not once has it froze up. VLC is the best and the only one that I know of with this option so maybe makes it even better now. Try it out for yourself.

[sirensynapse]

Works, but the only bug for me is it doesn't play when I open a file. It shows up on top, but just sits there and I have to click play to make it play. But just whack the space bar and we're off. Thanks for figuring that out, was annoyint the living hell out of me having to open VLC every time I played a file when doing multiples in a row.

[Gruko]

I'm used to right-clicking on the X button in the top right-hand corner.