Taskbar Media Bar & Resource Bar
Two minimal, transparent, always-visible bars for Windows: one shows the song or video currently playing and lets you control it, the other shows your CPU, RAM and GPU usage in real time. Both float over the taskbar area without getting in your way.
Written in Python with Tkinter, pywin32 and psutil. Each one can be compiled into a single .exe with PyInstaller.
Overview
| Tool |
Script |
What it does |
| Media Bar |
multimedia bar.py |
Shows what is playing and controls playback |
| Resource Bar |
resource bar.py |
Shows CPU, RAM and GPU usage |
Both share the same look and behavior: frameless, transparent background, always on top, horizontally draggable, position remembered between launches, and automatically hidden when a fullscreen window is active.
Media Bar
What it does
The bar sits at the bottom right of the screen, frameless and with a transparent background, so only the text and buttons are visible. It regularly checks the open windows, detects what is playing and displays its title.
Main features
- Real-time title: shows the name of what is playing, trimmed to 35 characters so the bar does not grow out of control.
- Media controls: previous, play/pause and next. They work by sending the Windows media keys, just like the keys on a keyboard with audio controls.
- Reload button: forces a new search for the active player.
- Close button: a small, discreet
× closes the application.
- Horizontally adjustable position: drag the text with the mouse to the left or right. The height stays fixed.
- Remembered position: when you release the mouse, the position is saved and restored on the next launch.
- Hides in fullscreen: if the active window fills the whole screen (a game or a video), the bar moves to the background so it does not get in the way.
- Always on top: otherwise it stays above all other windows.
Supported players
| Type |
Programs |
How it is detected |
| Browsers |
Chrome, Edge, Firefox |
Windows whose title contains YouTube |
| Local players |
Spotify, VLC, Windows Media Player |
Title of the program's window |
Detection is based on the window title, not on a direct connection to the player.
Known issue
Sometimes the bar does not show the correct title, stays on "Sin reproducción activa" (the default "no active playback" text, shown in Spanish), or the controls do not respond as expected.
This is known behavior and has a simple fix:
- Click on the player window (the YouTube tab, Spotify, VLC, etc.).
- If needed, press the bar's reload button.
- From that point on, everything works normally.
This tends to happen when the bar is started before the player, or when Windows is not yet sure which application is the active one for the media keys. Giving the player focus with a click resolves it.
Usage
| Action |
How |
| Move the bar |
Drag the text sideways |
| Play / pause |
Center button |
| Previous track |
Left button |
| Next track |
Right button |
| Search for the player again |
Reload button |
| Close |
× |
Resource Bar
What it does
A compact readout of your system load, styled like the Media Bar. It looks like this:
CPU 12% RAM 45% GPU 8%
Main features
- CPU, RAM and GPU usage: refreshed every second (CPU and RAM) and every few seconds (GPU).
- Color-coded load: white for normal usage, orange from 70% and red from 90%, so a glance is enough to spot a spike.
- Horizontally adjustable position: drag any of the numbers to move the bar sideways. The height stays fixed.
- Remembered position: saved when you release the mouse and restored on the next launch.
- Hides in fullscreen: goes to the background when a game or video is fullscreen.
- Close button: a small
× closes it.
CPU 35% RAM 78% GPU 93%
Same bar under load: the second value would turn orange (70% or more) and the third one red (90% or more).
How the GPU is read
The GPU is queried in a background thread, so the bar never freezes while waiting for the result.
| Situation |
Method |
NVIDIA card with nvidia-smi available |
Reads utilization directly from nvidia-smi (fast and lightweight) |
| Any other GPU (AMD, Intel) |
Reads the Windows GPU performance counters (3D engine usage) |
| Neither works |
Shows GPU N/D |
The Windows counters method is slightly heavier, which is why the GPU is only sampled every few seconds.
Usage
| Action |
How |
| Move the bar |
Drag the text sideways |
| Close |
× |
Installation
Requirements
- Windows 10 or 11
- Python 3.8 or higher
Dependencies
pip install pywin32 psutil pyinstaller
Tkinter is included with the standard Python installation for Windows.
Run from source
python "multimedia bar.py"
python "resource bar.py"
Build the .exe
To generate a single executable with no console window:
python -m PyInstaller --noconsole --onefile "multimedia bar.py"
python -m PyInstaller --noconsole --onefile "resource bar.py"
The results appear in the dist folder.
Tip: if something fails while building or running the .exe, build first without --noconsole to see the errors on screen:
python -m PyInstaller --onefile "multimedia bar.py"
If the executable does not start because of missing modules, try hidden imports:
python -m PyInstaller --noconsole --onefile --hidden-import win32timezone --hidden-import psutil "multimedia bar.py"
Generated files
They are created next to the .exe (or next to the .py if run without compiling). Each bar has its own files, so they never overwrite each other.
| Bar |
Position file |
Error log |
| Media Bar |
barra_config.json |
barra_errores.log |
| Resource Bar |
rendimiento_config.json |
rendimiento_errores.log |
- The position file stores the horizontal position. Delete it to return to the initial position.
- The error log is very useful for diagnosing problems, since the
.exe runs without a console.
Configuration
At the top of each script there are constants you can tweak.
Media Bar (multimedia bar.py):
DESPLAZAMIENTO_X = 160
Resource Bar (resource bar.py):
DESPLAZAMIENTO_X = 620 # initial horizontal position
INTERVALO_MS = 1000 # CPU and RAM refresh (milliseconds)
INTERVALO_GPU_S = 3 # GPU refresh (seconds)
DESPLAZAMIENTO_X is only the value for the first run. After that, the saved position takes priority.
Limitations
- Works on Windows only.
- The Media Bar controls act on whichever application Windows considers active for the media keys, which does not always match the one whose title is shown.
- If several players are open at the same time, the Media Bar shows the last title detected.
- The Resource Bar shows the usage of the 3D engine of the GPU, which is the most representative value for games but may differ from other GPU tools.
- If the GPU cannot be read on your system, the Resource Bar shows
GPU N/D.
Source code
