Multimedia keys only functioning in active window

Question

I've just purchased an XPS 13 9380, and irritatingly, whilst transcribing audio for work, the play/pause, skip forward and skip backward keys only work with the transcription program when it's the active window - which rather defies the point of having media keys in the first place. I've even tried changing my default audio program to the transcription software, but no dice. BIOS and drivers are all up to date.

jphughan · Accepted Answer

@Emmarrrrr  This is typically application-dependent.  The keyboard just sends a particular scan code to Windows.  What Windows does with it depends on Windows and any applications.  For example, iTunes by default only responds to media keys when it's in the foreground, but it has an option you can enable that makes it respond to 'global hotkeys', i.e. hotkey presses even when the application is not in the foreground.  But that can cause conflicts with other applications that might DEFAULT to that behavior, like Spotify does.  You might want to reach out to the vendor of your transcription application to see if they have a way to enable responding to media key presses that occur while the application is in the background.