How To Dismiss Windows 10 Media Volume Control Pop-up

Music Mute Sound Volume Speaker Audio Player Icon 256 05

In Windows 10 when you adjust the volume, a volume pop-up, also know as media volume control overlay, appears in the top left corner of the screen. It is well integrated with recent Chrome and Edge versions and allows you to pause a YouTube video or switch to the next entry in the playlist.Google Chrome 75 introduces a new feature that allows using media keys on the keyboard to control the media content playback in the browser. When enabled, it allows using the Volume Up, Volume Down, or Mute media keys, you will see a special toast notification with buttons that you can use to control media playback.

The following screenshot demonstrates the media notification toast:

This useful feature is available in Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge Chromium.

However, plenty of users find this media volume overlay annoying for its big size and long display time. Also, it is not clear how to dismiss it. The pop-up should automatically dismiss after a few seconds. However, sometimes it remains visible for too long, and its display time increases if you hover over it with your mouse pointer.

To Dismiss Windows 10 Media Volume Control Pop-up,

click on the app name. In this case, it is "chrome.exe".

For a media overlay which includes the album art or an artist photo, you can click on the artist name or on the album art to dismiss the popup.

Finally, if you are not happy to see this media overlay, it can be disabled with a special flag in modern chromium-based browsers.

To Disable Media Volume Control Pop-up,

  1. Open the Google Chrome browser and type the following text in the address bar:
    chrome://flags/#hardware-media-key-handling
    This will open the flags page directly with the relevant setting.
  2. Select the option Disable from the drop-down list next to the 'Hardware Media Key Handling' line.
  3. Restart Google Chrome by closing it manually or you can also use the Relaunch button which will appear at the very bottom of the page.
  4. You are done.

That's it.

Related posts:

Thanks to Albacore.

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Author: Sergey Tkachenko

Sergey Tkachenko is a software developer who started Winaero back in 2011. On this blog, Sergey is writing about everything connected to Microsoft, Windows and popular software. Follow him on Telegram, Twitter, and YouTube.

53 thoughts on “How To Dismiss Windows 10 Media Volume Control Pop-up”

  1. I’ve never seen this.

    I am on the latest version of win 10. I don’t have chrome, I do use edge alot but I tend to avoid videos as I prefer written text.

    1. I took a Journalism class in high school and I remember one of the most important things I was taught about writing an article, or writing in general, for that matter, was that I need to ask myself and establish why someone should care about what I’m writing. You just told a bunch of people who are frustrated with a feature of their operating system that you “tend to avoid video as [you] prefer text.” which makes you special? NO ONE CARES DAVE. Are you really looking for pats on the head for your virtually anonymous comment tag? You need to take a look at yourself Dave.

      [Parental advisory. Profanity removed. //Best regards, Sergey]

      1. Just because you took a journalism class in high school, you think it makes you special? NO ONE CARES JORGE. Are you really looking for pats on the head for your virtually anonymous comment tag? YOU need to take a look yourself, George. Yeah, that’s right. I called you George. F**got.

      2. Jorge Loco, sick burn, man! What else did you do in high school? Those must have been the best years of your life seeing how you speak of them so fondly. It’s like I can see that sparkle in your eyes as you reminisce. Can’t quite tell if you’re crying or just… oh sh~~, don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. But tell us more! What became of your journalism career⁉ The suspense is killing me! You have to have a wall full of participation trophies, medals, and other awards by now. I bet you polish them every night before bed, don’t you? You really are the best. I hope we can all be as perfect as you some day. BTW, did you make your name “Jorge Loco” because you drink a lot of Four Loco when you think about your high school days?

    2. If you have never seen it why are you here hatting?
      You see the title, if it doesn’t interest you just move on.

    3. David, I’m not sure why you even stopped in here. This obviously doesn’t pertain to you as you are far superior to us little plebes.

  2. This no longer works. I’ve tried it multiple times and even restarted computer a few times, but it still pops up and hangs there. Can’t even move it around the screen anymore.

    1. To the person who said “No one uses Chrome”…

      That’s the funniest sh** I’ve heard all day!

      FYI: As of March 2020, Chrome OWNS over 68% of the market share when it comes to “Browser”, whereas Firefox,Internet Explorer and “Edge” are between 6% & 8% respectively!

        1. Correct – It is the browser for the masses as is google the search for plebs.
          ANYONE with half a brain avoids garbage ‘products’ from this company.

    2. same thing basically – go to “about:config” then type “media.hardwaremediakeys.enabled” and set it to false

  3. It shows up for Spotify too. How to get rid of that? It’s annoying because it takes up so much of the screen and I don’t need to see it; I know what I’m listening to!

    1. > Drop-down arrow (next to your name)
      > “Settings”
      > “Display Options”
      > “Show desktop overlay when using media keys” Toggle off

      1. A) There is no drop down arrow next to my name in Edge.
        2) There is an elipsis “…” and I can get to “Settings” there.
        III) There is no “Display Options” anywhere in Settings
        D) Also no “Show desktop overlay when using media keys” to toggle off
        Anything else that might help?

    1. Yeah, there’s no way, so you also can’t play/pause with bluetooth headphones when this is disabled :(

  4. So This is helpful, but only for chrome. It also does this behavior on other web browsers and applications.

    How do you disable this feature in windows for everything? Not just 1 application. Maybe you can’t.. which would suck.

    1. It also works for any other browser that uses chromium.

      If you want to do this in other software, you’ll have to do it in the settings of that software. I.e. Spotify. In the Spotify app, go to:
      – top left corner “•••” >
      – “EDIT” >
      – “PREFERENCES” >
      – Scroll down to “DISPLAY” >
      – on right side, flip the toggle “SHOW DESKTOP OVERLAY WHEN USING MEDIA KEYS” to the left;
      or:
      – top right corner “YOUR NAME ▼” >
      – “SETTINGS”
      – Scroll down to “DISPLAY” >
      – on right side, flip the toggle “SHOW DESKTOP OVERLAY WHEN USING MEDIA KEYS” to the left;

  5. Thank you so much! This was driving me crazy, specially since there wasn’t a clear way to dismiss the notification. Who approved of this? Seriously.

  6. Why is this walkthrough for Chrome? This is a Windows 10 feature. Not everyone uses Chrome. This is completely useless for those of us who aren’t Google sheeple.

    1. Just use this instead if you use edge(I don’t know what works for other browsers)

      edge://flags/#hardware-media-key-handling

  7. This gets rid of that, but it also disables using the hardware media buttons (using those makes the YouTube video buttons go away quicker).

    One problem fixed, another to deal with.

  8. Thank you so much! It was amazingly annoying to see the pop-up showing up time to time and blocking the view.
    I don’t understand why would they develop such an annoying feature!!

  9. Many thanks! Worked great with my Chrome 64bit 85.0.4183.102
    I see this also happen in the new Edge, I not use it very often but is about the same thing you do. Type about://flags then search “Media” and disable “Hardware Media Key Handling” it also works for Opera.

    To disable the volume OSD in Windows 10, the one that pops up every time you click volume up/down/mute, is not very easy to find. I used a freeware software to do this that simply named “HideVolumeOSD”. I hide it because I got big speakers with digital display that shows volume so not need Windows to show it. Not a big thing but in my opinion better. On my laptop I not done it.

    What works for me might not work for others.

  10. I came here looking for a solution to this annoying popup because I LIKE USING THE KEYBOARD BUTTONS! Why would I want to disable my keyboard keys that cause this popup just so I won’t see the popup that only pops up when I USE THE KEYBOARD KEYS?? This is a tremendously silly article with a solution that is worse than the actual problem.
    Of course, Google bears all the blame for rolling out asinine features like this. So stupid google.

  11. There is nothing else that spoils my nerves so much on Windows 10. Why doesn’t f…king pop up have a close button?

    1. So you like the ridiculous Start Menu of Windows 10, Yilmaz ??
      The Start Menu that has to insult our intelligence (and at the same make it awful to use), by printing each letter of the alphabet as headings for the programs you have installed ??
      i.e
      A
      Adobe Photoshop
      .
      .
      B
      Backup
      Brave
      .
      .
      C
      Cleanup

      etc
      All Start Menu containing versions of Windows prior to version 10 didn’t do this. They just showed us our installed programs alphabetically WITHOUT the need to put the letters of the alphabet in front of the installed programs !
      It’s laughable and makes the Start Menu tedious to use.

  12. I use Firefox, not chrome, and so this ended up not working.
    Additionally, the “right click and hit ‘dismiss'” doesn’t work on FF either. Nothing comes up when you right-click on the overlay.
    :(

  13. https://forums.evga.com/How-to-disable-Firefox-mediakey-controls-on-Volume-OSD-m3095995.aspx

    If you run Firefox and not Chrome or another Browser you may need to use these instructions instead.

  14. This is a note to my future self, coming here after installing Windows 11. Hi, future self! Well looks like that dam* annoying windows media keys popup is bothering you again. Don’t worry, just follow the instructions in the article like you did the first two times and all will be chill. And then remember to say awhile and have some fun reading other comments venting at the arrogant and obnoxious programmers that made this attention hogging thing. Have a nice day.

  15. This is note to my future self, coming here after installing Windows 11. Hi, future self! Well looks like that dam* annoying windows media keys popup is bothering you again. Don’t worry, just follow the instructions in the article like you did the first two times and all will be chill. And then remember to say awhile and have some fun reading other comments venting at the arrogant and obnoxious programmers that made this attention hogging thing. Have a nice day.

  16. Отключив эту функцию, у меня перестали работать клавиши Play/Pause на Bluetooth колонке, клавиатуре и мыши.

  17. Well, this disables the popup, but it also disables useful features. Many people wants to use media keys on their keyboard. I switch songs on spotify, for example.

    It is hard for me to understand that we are having obvious usability flaws like this. This problem has been there for years and still it is there. There should be a cogwheel and option to remove the popup.

    This popup opens when you adjust the volume. It is blocking top left corner of your screen and you cannot click anything from there. If you put your mouse on it, it comes back and you have to wait even longer that it goes away. That design is so stupid that it is really hard to understand what kind of people works with usability in that company. And they know this problem. It has been reported over and over again and still nothing happens. Fixing this would take no time and it would be great help for many.

    1. Toivo Epätoivo,
      Do you, or anybody else know:

      1. WHY does the pop-up show on the screen IN THE FIRST PLACE? And why is my (Finnish) keyboard a mess now?

      IS IT BECAUSE OF SOME HOTKEY, OR SHORTCUT-FUNCTION that I may have accidentally pushed? (My computer and keyboard went crazy after I was just writing something while listening to youtube. It’s the first time I’ve encountered this problem.)

      2. …IF SO, WHAT IS THAT SHORTCUT/HOTKEY? And IS THERE AN EASIER WAY TO UNDO IT? (Than going through the hardware-route? Which I’ve already done though, but it didn’t help with everything.)

      3. HOW TO GET MY KEYBOARD BACK AND FUNCTIONING?

      I’ve managed to individually restore my ‘backspace’ and’enter’-keys. And the function keys on the top of my keyboard. (I
      use a laptop.)

      …But still my ‘SPACEBAR’ is not functioning always, like in google search, on Facebook, etc. When I add something to a text I’ve already written and use the ‘spacebar’, the cursor suddenly jumps to the end of the row, or the text.

      And if I use the ARROW KEYS, eg. to go downwards in my text, it creates a space to a word from where I use the arrow -key.

      Also, if I write something in the address bar, my computer AUTO SUGGESTS, or not just suggest, but erases what I’ve written and gives a link from my bookmarks.

      I ‘ve tried changing the language for the keyboard, and checking if my computer has the same keyboard as the one I have on my laptop, and all kinds of tricks I’ve found on the internet, but nothing seems to help.

      IS THE KEYBOARD PROBLEM CONNECTED TO THE MEDIA PLAYER POP-UP? (Or did I manage to accidentally push some other hotkeys/shortcuts that caused the keyboard problem individually?)

      IS THERE A SIMPLE SOLUTION TO THE KEYBOARD PROBLEM?
      And maybe for the whole probelm (meida player volume control
      pop up and the keyboard)?

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