Windows 7: WMP 12 - making album art bigger?

I know this is not very important in the grand scheme of things, but it irritates the crap out of me. When the player is in "Now Playing" mode, using the album art visualization, is it possible to make the album art bigger? When in full screen mode the album art is but a tiny postage stamp on the desktop. I would like to make it larger so it's easier to see. Is there a way to enlarge it, or did the programmers in Redmond not think there would ever be a need to actually be able to see and enjoy the album art?

Hi SmokingMan,

Here's a guide for changing the way WMP 11 handles album art, I hope it still applies in WMP 12: Dale Preston's Web Log: Windows Media Player and Album Art Let us know how it goes if you try anything from there...

Cheers,

Walker
Windows Outreach Team

I downloaded ID3AlbumArtFixer but I can't seem to remove the read only file permissions from the directory I have my music in. I have Administrator access but when I try to change the folder permissions, it reverts back so I am unable to replace the image to see if this will work. Any suggestions? I know this forum isn't so much for setting file permissions and such.

....... did anybody here figured it out yet how to display album art in different sizes using Media Player 12 ???

The workarounds described here: Dale Preston's Web Log: Windows Media Player and Album Art are not working in Media Player 12 .......

Won't it be dependent on image size?

I'm not to sure but try getting bigger images for the album.

.......the images are embedded into the .mp3 files with the desired image size.

They were displaying correct in Media Player 11 (Vista) but Media Player 12 displays them in 200x200 only.

I configured Media Player 12 that has no internet access so it can't update files with media information.

I imagine there must be a way to configure it but I don't know how.......

I only say that because with some of the mp3s I got I had to go and get my own album art as there were none with them.

Doesn't walkers link provide you with anything?

.......as I said before, the information provided in the link by Walker Dale Preston's Web Log: Windows Media Player and Album Art does not solve the problem.

By the way, Media Center displays the album art in the size that was embedded into the mp3 files but not Media Player 12.......

read this, it may help you (read the whole thread):
...if you add the below values it appears that WMP will NOT generate or resize new folder.jpg OR AlbumArtSmall.jpg files. IF folder.jpg (or AlbumArtSmall) already exist(s), it does not resize it but mearly sets the HIDDEN and SYSTEM attributes. so if you have a folder.jpg and/or an albumartsmall.jpg file at 1500x1500, it will leave them alone (except for hiding them...)...
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Preferences]
"LargeAlbumArtSize"=dword:ffffffff
"SmallAlbumArtSize"=dword:ffffffff

Windows Media Player destroys the album art pictures
cheers

Hi Grimmjow.

Thanks for your reply and sorry, but I'm not that much of a geek.

Anyway, compared to others I have only a very small collection of music files like about 200 GB of mp3 files not counting my FLAC/EAC/APE and WAV files etc.

All of these mp3 files are perfectly tagged which is obvious when I have a look at the Media Player 12 Library - except the album art issue.

Media Player hasn't touched my files because I configured it right from the start to don't update any media information like tags album art etc. from the internet which means the mp3 files haven't been touched or been overwritten.

As I mentioned before, the album art is also embedded (450x450) into the mp3 files and doesn't need these hidden system files which are only created by Windows (Media Player) but in my case any album (Folder) contains these Folder.jpg (200x200) and AlbumArtSmall.jpg (75x75) and deleting or resizing the Folder.jpg (200x200) and AlbumArtSmall.jpg (75x75) doesn't change anything.

Media Player displays the album art only in 200x200 even though the Folder.jpg (200x200) and AlbumArtSmall.jpg (75x75) are deleted.

The suggested ID3 Album Art Fixer software works only if images (jpg) are available which doesn't apply in my case because the album art is already embedded in mp3 files and I don't want to screw around with them.

The registry modification does not do the trick as well because all the Folder.jpg are 200x200 and the AlbumArtSmall.jpg are 75x75.

In case I missed something please give me another hint.

Thanks again,