If you’re using Windows Media Player 12, you can always show playback controls in now playing mode by pressing the “ctrl” key while playing a file.
In this example I’m playing a song from the band Early Day Miners and we can see the album cover in the Now Playing mode and the playback controls are hidden.
When I hover the mouse pointer over the window the controls pop backup.
To make it so the playback controls are always displayed, switch back to Library view and click Organize then Options.
Click on the Player tab then under Player settings uncheck the box next to Allow autohide of playback controls then click Ok.
That’s all there is to it! Now the playback controls will always be displayed when you go to Now Playing mode.
