MPH

MPH is a lightweight software application whose purpose is to help you control audio and video players using a set of user-defined hotkeys.

Taking into consideration that this is a portable program, you can store it on USB flash drives or other devices. You don’t need to install it on your system. It’s enough to run the executable file in order to gain access to the utility’s features.

You can run it without administrative privileges on the target system. Getting rid of it implies only deleting the files that you have downloaded from the Internet.

The app works with Pandora, STP, Spotify, 1by1, AIMP, ALShow, ALSong, Billy, CoolPlayer, Foobar2000, KMPlayer, Light Alloy, Media Player Classic, PotPlayer, Quintessential Media Player, Screamer Radio, Spider Player, Trout, VLC media player, Winamp, and Windows Media Player.

The tool employs a multi-tabbed layout for helping you quickly set up hotkeys, check out a list with supported players, configure general settings, as well as access a help manual. The help manual provides succinct descriptions about the application’s features.

MPH lets you assign hotkeys for one of the following actions: Play, Pause, PlayPause, Stop, Next, Previous, Volume Up, Volume Down, Volume Mute, Show Popup Menu, Show / Hide Player, Like / Thumbs Up, and Dislike / Thumbs Down.

You are given the freedom to set up as many hotkeys as you want for each action. You should know that not all actions are supported on all players. You can click on each player displayed in the tool’s interface for finding out more details about the supported actions.

MPH lets you place the players in a preferred order. This is not just a whimsical action that you can take to simply have the players sorted in a certain order. Actually, MPH automatically scans the list with players and applies the assigned action to the first player in the list.

For example, a possible scenario would involve Winamp and Windows Media Player running at the same time on your computer. If Winamp is above Windows Media Player in the list, then Winamp is the utility controlled via hotkeys.

You are allowed to run the program at Windows startup and open it minimized in the system tray, adjust the popup menu icon size, and launch a custom file if a hotkey is triggered and no players are currently running.

MPH provides an efficient and fast way for controlling your media players via custom hotkeys, and can be mastered by beginners and professionals alike. On the downside, you are not allowed to manually add a user-defined player to the list.