Notification: A nice popup in the corner

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1. In Winamp
Winamp features this nice popup in the bottom-right corner, providing information when a new song starts:
2. Foobar2000 built-in feature
In foobar, you have a built-in similar feature. Go to Preferences/Display/Default User Interface and tick all boxes in the "System Notification Area" on the right. You will get this awesome balloon, which looks like windows wants to update whenever your song changes:

3. Advanced feature
Now if you want something better, install the component foo_popupplus and get for example something like this:

(NB: you will need to decompress the file with Winrar or 7zip)

In addition to the winamp thing, you get:
-A fully customizable popup: size, fonts, content, delay, events...
-Many different skins
-Action buttons (Next, Previous, Pause...)
-Free location: you can chose any location on the screen for it to appear
-etc.

Just for indication, here is the configuration I used.
In the Menu>File>Preferences, in the Display/Popup Plus section:
-In "skin", I chose foton_popup, and in the options on the right I disabled "show icon" (foobar icon) and "align avatar on the right" (the cover art)
-In "general", I changed the size of the "avatar" (actually the cover art)
-In "general", in the "Size & position" box, I unticked "lock popup position", to change the position of the popup.

Play with the settings.

Other components:
-foo_prettypop does popups in the outlook style, much less customizable in my opinion.
-Apparently, foo_advancedcontrols includes a similar features but I think you just get that balloon.

What's currently playing?

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It's quite useful to have a clear display of information about the current track, (like in the main Winamp window) or for example, in this picture.

You can do such a thing in the default UI without much effort, but it will not have many fancy graphic effects...


Do to that, install the component foo_textdisplay (page), which can display any informations about the current track (the content and formatting are, customizable, of course)

Once you installed the component, add a new element in the layout, and chose Selection Information / Text Display.

Then you can customize the format (that's easy) and the content, which needs a little knowledge about titleformatting.

To have the same display as the picture above, the syntax is:
[%artist% - ]
%title%$crlf()
[%album%[ '('%date%')']$crlf()]
%playback_time%[ / %length%]

(NB: $ctrlf is a linebreak)

More info about titleformatting is available there.


If you want more graphic effects, the best is probably to use the columns_UI, which can be skinned more widely. (Or check this post about a graphic user interface, but it is not really recommended)

Stylish skins

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You may think that foobar2000 looks like square frames without any style, a text-only design made in the 90s. You may want a cool rounded design.

1. Skins
It is possible to apply skins. For example, the following is using a tool called FOOAvA.



NB: It requires an older version of Foobar2000, and a few components, including the columns UI.

For an overview of different skins, look at this gallery

Check this site to find different skins: http://customize.org/foobar/skins

NB: Applying good-looking skins requires the columns UI instead of the default UI.

The columns UI is less simple that the default UI to use, and needs a little more time to get used to.

2. UI GFX (not recommended)
The main user interfaces (more about UIs here) are columns_UI and default_UI, but there is another one called UI GFX. It's a graphic (contrary to the other ones which are text-based), skinnable, interface.

However, it is not recommended because:
-This UI is old (last update 2006) and not developed or supported any more.
-You probably won't find themes to apply apart from the default one.
-It doesn't seem to add any usability, it's merely the contrary.
-If you really want something like that... There's an awesome player called, wait for it, Winamp =)

Anyway. Foobar may look like this:



1. You can download it from here.
Extract the archive: you should have a file called foo_ui_gfx.dll and a "skins" folder. Paste both in the foobar2000\component\ folders.

2. Restart foobar. At startup, it will ask you which UI you want, then chose "gfx_window". Chose a skin (winamp is the only working for me) in the components\skins\ folder.

Your configuration in the default UI will be saved. To return to the default UI, just go to Menu>Preferences, section "Display", and chose the Defaut User Interface, then restart foobar.

3. Theoritically, all components I present here (iPod, hotkeys, etc....) work with this interface, except the facets (hence everything related to the search/playlist/library behaviour in the "Winamp-like layout" does not apply). So there still are many functions.

This UI is a bit difficult at first.
-Click on the "Lib" button on the right of the main window to display the library
-Click on the "PL" link just above the "lib" button, to display the current playlist
-Click on the button on the top-right to display the "File" menu