The VideoLAN Forums

Hi,

It would be ideal if VLC had options (in the tray menu and bindable to a key) to remove it from the Windows Taskbar and the Alt-Tab task-switch list.

This would make it easier to watch a video while multi-tasking, and would reduce the clutter in the taskbar which tends to get full when working with numerous windows (which is pointless anyway if you set VLC to keep a notification area icon).


Thanks.

There is no way to do that without violating all UI guidelines.

That's why they are guidelines and not rules. There are plenty of programs that can run in the background without keeping a button on the taskbar or interrupting the alt-tab list.

Ostensibly, one would set VLC to be always-on-top and have a video running in the corner of the screen. When you press alt-tab, because VLC is topmost, it gets put in the leftmost part of the alt-tab list, which means that tabbing to it requires using SHIFT-alt-tab. It's even more frustrating in Windows 7 which has the Desktop as the rightmost item in the list.

Patches are welcome.

Patches are welcome.

That seems to be the default response to every complaint and request these days.

If users are expected to do all the working of fixing and improving VLC ourselves, then we may as well just make our own program the way we want it to be instead of using VLC at all.

The reason I loved VLC so much (despite its shortcomings, limitations, and bugs) was because of the ability to increase speed without altering audio pitch, which made it possible to watch videos faster. This was a relatively rare feature back then, but not so much anymore. I would hate it if I had to abandon VLC because of a refusal to listen to user feedback. I already had to abandon Chrome—which I loved so much when it first came out—because the devs insisted that they knew better than users, ignored us, and tried to tell us what we should want and how we should work and use the program.

Patches are welcome.

That seems to be the default response to every complaint and request these days.

Of course, it's an open source tool, with a small team. So features that are very rare or not really mainstream do not get selected by the core team.

Of course, it's an open source tool, with a small team. So features that are very rare or not really mainstream do not get selected by the core team.

Fair enough, but this is hardly rare; the ability to have the player sit unobtrusively in the corner of the screen without being in the taskbar or Alt+Tab list or waste screen real-estate with a border is a standard, expected feature of any media-player these days. Most people like to work on stuff while watching videos in the corner, and having it be in the task-bar and Alt+Tab list interferes with that ability, particularly since having the window be topmost causes it to behave differently in the Alt-Tab list (it stays at the front of the list).

Fair enough, but this is hardly rare; the ability to have the player sit unobtrusively in the corner of the screen without being in the taskbar or Alt+Tab list

Everyone considers his features as important or not-rare. The beauty of open source is that anyone can fix it and send a patch.