Lock The Screen While in Full-Screen Mode in Windows Media Player
If you are throwing a party and listening to music or videos using Windows Media Player, you'll probably not want anybody messing with the rest of your computer while you are off trying to win somebody's affection.
Windows Media Player includes a feature that will let you lock the screen while still making the interface usable, so you can still easily switch music or videos while the screen is locked.
Open up WMP in full-screen mode, and you'll notice a small icon in the bottom-right hand corner of the screen.
Clicking on that icon will open up a small textbox where you can enter a PIN code, and then click the green checkbox.
Now your screen should be locked, and the Alt-Tab or Windows keys won't work anymore until you click the lock icon and then enter your PIN again.
It's worth noting that if you have screenshot software installed such as SnagIt, the screenshot mode will interrupt the lock mode, so you'll want to close that down before you do this.
Thanks to Reader Ebrahim for writing in with this tip.
my wmp [v11] doesn't have that feature
If you start up your taskmanager that Fullscreen mode is gone
Only for Vista, right?
May want to mention what version of WMP supports this feature, as it is not in every version.
My apologies for the confusion… Vista includes this feature.
My Vista WMP doesn't have this….
It works only with Media palyer that bundled with VISTA. And i think it only works with Vista Ultimate Edition maybe.
David: Then update to the latest version
I use my WMP every day & am all over it yet, I've never seen this option. It'd be a much better article if the author would've at least put what versions he was working with.
i have vista ultimate and i can't see this feature on wmp 11
Version 11 you have to have a visualization or video playing, album art wont do it, press alt+enter to get full screen mode or go to View>Fullscreen
Hey Pete you must first go into the full screen mode and then the feature will be activate and you can use it.
As i said before i see this feature in WMP11 that come with VISTA and it's file version is 11.0.6000.6324.
"win someones affection"….lol
Pressing Ctrl+Alt+Delete disables it so there's no point in using it…
Yeh, this doesn't work on my XP SP2 machine. I have an older version of WMP. 11.0.5721.5230, but when i check for updates it says that i have the latest version. So, it looks like this is for Vista only………for now.
I'm currently running vista Ultimate x32 w/ WMP v11.0.6000.6344 and it DOES NOT have that full screen lock feature. And as far as I recall, I've NEVER updated my WMP so this should be the default on Vista Ultimate (Australia).
My suggestion is for you to see if you or anyone that has acces to your PC had installed any plug-ins/extras on your machine. because I can tell you right now that this feature is NOT even descriibed on the MS WMP manual.
Even though it should be imo…
I tried it….. In full screen mode, I saw an open LOCK after clicking the icon and I entered a pin to lock the screen. The LOCK changed to lock position, but the screen is still not locked at all.
I can hit the STOP button on the screen and the video stops.
I can hit Ctl-Alt-Del and the video stops too.
I am using Vista Home Premium on HP Pavillion dv6000
It's hard to finally get it, but once I did it worked well as far as I can tell. Thank you!
I got it but it doesnt stay locked for long. Can someone please help me. I'd like to watch a movie without costantly having to lock in full screen. Thanks in advance.