Pretty simple question, but I haven't been able to find an answer. All I want to do is disable the media player controls that appear on the Windows 10 lock screen. The screenshot below shows what controls I mean:
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See if some music app(s) are listed in Settings > Personalization > Lock Screen > Choose Apps to Show Quick Status.– harrymcCommented Jun 28, 2019 at 20:42
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2@harrymc no luck - none of them are in that list.– IanCommented Jul 1, 2019 at 13:56
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4 Answers
In Chrome go to chrome://flags/#hardware-media-key-handling and set that to "Disabled": 
Explanation:
I was able to find a way to hide this feature per-browser. This is part of the Media Session API that browsers are implementing lately. You can disable it by going to your browser's flags config page and disabling media session service.
Source: Disable Media Control Overlays on Chrome and Edge browsers in Windows 10.
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1@levantpied - yes it will disable all hardware controls including keyboard controls. Commented Sep 15, 2022 at 13:00
There's a Group Policy edit which will fix this for your computer. This isn't app specific and will work for anything that is playing.
- Open Group Policy Editor (run gpedit.msc)
- Then navigate to:
Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Control Panel > Personalization - Find and open the option called
Do not display the lock screen option - Enable this option and OK / apply your way our of the screens.
- Restart your PC.
This is a workaround and not specifically targeted towards the media controls appearing issue but I can confirm it works! It disables the lock screen which prevents the media controls appearing.
The advantage of this is that is still allows the media controls to be available when you're logged in. If you edit the chrome:// flags to prevent hardware media control, this will prevent you from controlling media via the sound popup or keyboard shortcuts.
answered Sep 15, 2022 at 12:59
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Disabling the lock screen is overkill for this and an unacceptable solution in a lot of environments (basically anywhere the user is wanting to securely walk away from their machine while others are around). It's akin to someone saying they have a problem with their computer and responding "well, don't use the computer".– TylerHCommented Apr 25, 2023 at 16:25
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1@TylerH I agree, but this is the best generic answer - unfortunately there's not much to work with and there doesn't seem to be a better way of doing it. If you want true privacy, this prevents the media controls showing for all apps, without relying on any individual app settings. Commented May 2, 2023 at 19:38
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"Don't use the lock screen" is definitely not the best answer. This is a specific Windows feature abused by specific applications, and should be handled via those applications, not by disabling the entire Windows environment where the feature appears.– TylerHCommented May 3, 2023 at 13:50
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@TylerH Well the most voted answer above only works for chromium browsers but this prevents keyboard controls for playing media and doesn't work for apps.... so I guess I do consider my answer the best for me but of course I'm biased! :) If you have a better solution though, please do post it, it would be much appreciated! I'd like a proper solution from Microsoft on this too, but in the meantime I have to make do, just like all the other users - so I'll look forward to seeing your solution! Commented May 3, 2023 at 16:08
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Fine by me. It is clearly poorly thought out design from MS, as usual. Commented Jan 18 at 21:30
If you only need to disable the media controls overlay for Spotify (this seems to be the case), then you can do it from the Spotify side of things by going to:
Spotify (app) -> Edit -> Preferences -> Display -> "Show desktop overlay when using media keys"
Sourced from Remove media controls from volume popup.
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2I know about this, but my goal is to disable it for all apps. Ideally I'd still like to keep the media controls linked to the volume changer if possible.– IanCommented Jun 28, 2019 at 16:46
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1I did some research and nobody seems to know how to disable this within windows itself, instead of by app. I took a quick look in the registry and didn't find anything. Sorry. Commented Jun 28, 2019 at 17:14
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I am also curious if anybody knows how to do this for all applications (so it would work, for example, for both chrome and foobar2000). Commented Mar 24, 2020 at 16:55
This is more of a "workaround" vs. "solution" but it has the following 2 advantages that the 3 Answers so far doesn't offer: a) works for all apps (which is obviously labor intensive and some apps may not even offer a disable option) and b) does so without disabling Windows Lock Screen option (which is a security / privacy risk).
WORKAROUND: On the Windows Lock Screen, press any key or click anywhere outside the media controls panel.
Fwiw, I realize it's up to each app to use this Windows "feature" or not, but that doesn't mean Windows can't or shouldn't offer an opt out override option (a la the OS-wide location services opt out in mobile OSes). Allowing audio / video to play (or even showing the media's title) could easily be a privacy or even security risk.
