musicmusic’s foobar2000 stuff

Album list panel 2.2.0 released

Thu, 30 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Album list panel is an add-on for the Columns UI component for the foobar2000 audio player on Windows. It allows you to browse your foobar2000 media library as a tree. The component is a fork of the same Album List that comes with foobar2000, providing a panel version that can be added to a Columns UI layout.

Here’s a summary of the changes in Album list panel 2.2.0, released today.

Autoplaylist creation

You can now create automatically updating playlists – called autoplaylists – from one or more items in the tree and any active filter query. Such autoplaylists automatically update whenever the content of your media library changes.

To create an autoplaylist, right-click on one or more items in an instance of the panel in your layout and select ‘Create autoplaylist’ from the context menu:

The ‘Create autoplaylist’ item in the context menu

The new autoplaylist will be created after any existing playlists and will be named after the items that were selected.

You can edit properties of the autoplaylist later by right-clicking on the created playlist in the playlist switcher, the playlist tabs or another playlist manager and selecting ‘Album list panel properties’¹.

Properties for an Album list panel autoplaylist

You’re able to make the playlist sort itself automatically, adjust how items are sorted and edit any filter query. (If ‘Keep playlist sorted and prevent manual reordering’ is disabled, the configured sorting pattern is still used for any items added to the playlist at a later date.)

An updated compiler and removed support for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1

In line with recent versions of Columns UI, Album list panel is now built using Visual Studio 2026, toolset version 14.51 (an upgrade from Visual Studio 2022, toolset version 14.43). As a result, Album list panel no longer works on Windows 7, 8 and 8.1.

If you’re still on Windows 7, 8 or 8.1, you should remain on Album list panel 2.1.0 (or an older version).

Other changes

Details of changes between pre-release versions are available on the releases page on GitHub.

How to update

If you currently have Album list panel installed, you can update to the latest version using the Help › Check for updated components command in foobar2000.

If you have foobar2000 and Columns UI installed and want to add Album list panel, download Album list panel from the Album list panel page, open foobar2000, navigate to Preferences › Components, click the Install… button and select the downloaded file. Alternatively, if file associations are set up, you can simply double-click the downloaded component package. Once Album list panel is installed, you’ll need to add it to your layout either using Live (layout) editing or from Preferences › Display › Columns UI › Layout.

The name of the context menu item may vary in third-party playlist managers. ↩

Columns UI 3.6.0 released

Thu, 23 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Columns UI is an alternative UI for the foobar2000 audio player on Windows. Columns UI is written in C++, uses the Win32 API and is open source on GitHub.

Here’s a summary of the most notable additions and changes in Columns UI 3.6.0, released today.

Autoscroll in built-in panels

The playlist view, playlist switcher, Filter panel, Item details and Item properties panels all now support auto-scrolling using the middle mouse button:

It works similarly to how it does in Chrome and Firefox

There are two ways of using autoscroll. You can click the middle button to enter autoscroll mode, move the mouse to scroll and then click the middle button again to exit autoscroll mode. Alternatively, you can press and hold down the middle mouse button, move the mouse to scroll and then release the middle button when done.

Note that autoscroll will be unavailable if a different middle-click action has been assigned in Preferences for the relevant panel.

Spectrum analyser enhancements

The built-in spectrum analyser visualisation now has a solid bars appearance option:

Solid bars in the spectrum analyser

The visualisation also now has an option to smooth values, useful for large visualisation widths where low frequency resolution becomes more noticeable:

Additionally, you can now customise:

the width of bars (in the bars appearance modes)
the fast Fourier transform (FFT) size, allowing you to choose between a more responsive visualisation or one with more frequency detail
the minimum and maximum frequency on the x-axis

The new options are all available from the spectrum analyser options dialogue:

Changes now also take effect immediately when the dialogue is opened from the panel context menu

Manually reload playlist view artwork

When right-clicking on artwork in the playlist view, a context menu with commands to reload that image or all artwork in the playlist is now shown:

The new context menu for artwork in the playlist view

`%playlist_name%` in playlist view grouping scripts

The %playlist_name% field is now available in playlist view grouping scripts. This can be used with functions such as $if() to add conditional logic based on the playlist name.

For example, the group heading text can be varied based on the playlist name. Since the grouping level can be omitted by outputting an empty string, this also provides an alternative to the existing playlist filters.

Other changes

There were several other smaller improvements and bug fixes in Columns UI 3.6.0 – see the release notes from version 3.6.0-beta.1 onwards for full details.

How to update

If you currently have Columns UI installed, you can update to the latest version using the Help › Check for updated components command in foobar2000.

If you have foobar2000 installed and want to add Columns UI to it, download Columns UI from the Columns UI page, open foobar2000, navigate to Preferences › Components, click the Install… button and select the downloaded file. Alternatively, if file associations are set up, you can simply double-click the downloaded component package.

(And if you don’t have foobar2000 at all, you can download it from the foobar2000 downloads page.)

Columns UI 3.5.0 released

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Columns UI is an alternative UI for the foobar2000 audio player on Windows. Columns UI is written in C++, uses the Win32 API and is open source on GitHub.

Here’s a summary of the most notable additions and changes in Columns UI 3.5.0, released today.

A search bar built into the playlist view

A new search bar has been added to the playlist view, allowing you to quickly search the current playlist:

The search bar appears at the bottom of the playlist view when opened

The search bar is essentially a more polished version of Typefind panel. It can be opened by pressing Ctrl+F or F3 while the playlist view is focused (as long as those key combinations are not assigned to keyboard shortcuts at Preferences › Keyboard Shortcuts).

It can also be opened using the View › Playlist view › Search playlist menu item.

The search bar can be configured at Preferences › Display › Columns UI › Playlist view › Search:

You can choose between simple plain text search modes or the foobar2000 query syntax

The default search mode is Match beginnings of words in formatted title, with Title format to match set to [%artist%] [%title%] [%album%]. This splits the typed text into words and checks that each word matches the start of a word in the formatted title. For example, an input of ‘cold yel’ would match the song Yellow by Coldplay, while ‘old yel’ would not.

The search mode ‘Match anywhere in formatted title’ is similar but allows typed words to match anywhere in the formatted title, and so in this case typing ‘old yel’ would match the song Yellow by Coldplay.

The third available search mode is Use query language. This instead allows entering queries using the foobar2000 query language (for example, ARTIST IS coldplay).

When the search box is focused, you can use Down or F3 to navigate to the next result and Up or Shift+F3 to navigate to the previous result.

You can also press Enter to play the current item or Ctrl+Enter to add it to the playback queue. Esc will close the search bar.

Customisation of lines next to playlist view group headings

Horizontal lines next to group headings in the playlist view can now be customised using the global style script. The colour of the lines can be changed, or they can be turned off if you prefer.

To turn the lines off, put this in the global style script (found at Preferences › Display › Columns UI › Playlist view › Globals › Style script) and press the Apply button:

$set_style(group-line,false)

If you’re looking to change the colour of the lines, this is an example of making them red:

$set_style(group-line,true,$rgb(255,0,0))

These examples can also be found in the style script documentation.

`%is_light%` and `%is_dark%` variables in the playlist view

Two new fields, %is_dark% and %is_light%, are now available in the playlist view display, style, sorting and global variables scripts.

%is_dark% is defined when dark mode is active and %is_light% is defined when light mode is active. The fields can be used with $if() for styling conditional on the current mode.

This example varies the group heading line colour depending on whether dark mode is active:

$set_style(group-line,true,$if(%is_dark%,$rgb(100,100,100),$rgb(150,150,150)))

The ability to lock the main window size

A new main menu command has been added to lock the main window size, preventing it from being resized using its border. (Maximising and restoring the window is still allowed.)

This was a frequently requested feature and can be used to prevent accidental resizing of the main window or to make it more difficult for other people that use the same device to resize the window.

The new menu command can be found at View › Lock window size.

New row and column resizing behaviour

The behaviour when resizing a row or a column containing two or more unlocked panels was changed in new installations so that the panels maintain their proportional size. This video shows the old behaviour (top window) and the new behaviour (bottom window):

With the old behaviour, the playlist switcher here resizes to a zero width

This was changed as the old behaviour was unconventional.

Note that locked panels are not automatically resized, so there is no change in behaviour for them.

The new behaviour is not automatically enabled for installations that have been upgraded from an older version of Columns UI to avoid unwanted layout changes. To switch to the new behaviour, disable the Use non-proportional panel sizing (deprecated) option found at Preferences › Display › Columns UI › Layout › Misc.

Customisable fonts in more toolbars

The font used in the menu toolbar and the Buttons toolbar can now be changed. Here’s an example of those toolbars using Comic Sans MS:

Some people like it

(Note that the menu toolbar font only applies to the toolbar itself and not any opened menus.)

Improved keyboard shortcut support in text inputs

A subset of configured keyboard shortcuts now work in the Filter search toolbar and in inline editing text inputs in the playlist view, playlist switcher, Filter panel and Item properties.

This allows common shortcuts such as Ctrl+P (for Preferences) to work while not interfering with typing and manipulating text.

An updated compiler and removed support for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1

Columns UI is now built using Visual Studio 2026, toolset version 14.51 (an upgrade from Visual Studio 2022, toolset version 14.43). Binaries built with the new toolset version require Windows 10 or newer. Hence, Columns UI no longer works on Windows 7, 8 and 8.1.

If you’re still on Windows 7, 8 or 8.1, you should remain on Columns UI 3.4.1 (or an older version).

If you’re using Wine, you should ensure that you are on the latest version of Wine and the Windows version is set to 10 or 11 in winecfg.

Other changes

There were several other smaller changes in Columns UI 3.5.0 – see the release notes from version 3.5.0-alpha.1 onwards for full details.

How to update

If you currently have Columns UI installed, you can update to the latest version using the Help › Check for updated components command in foobar2000.

(And if you don’t have foobar2000 at all, you can download it from the foobar2000 downloads page.)

Columns UI 3.4.0 – release highlights

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Hello 👋 This is the inaugural post in the news section of this site, where more detailed information about notable new versions of my foobar2000 components will be posted.

This first post is about Columns UI, an alternative UI for the foobar2000 audio player on Windows. Columns UI is written in C++, uses the Win32 API and is open source on GitHub.

Here’s a summary of the most notable changes in Columns UI 3.4.0, released in March 2026.

Smooth scrolling in most built-in panels

Smooth scrolling here refers to animating the transition between two scroll positions. Support for smooth scrolling has been added to the playlist view, playlist switcher, Filter panel, Item details and Item properties panels.

Here’s the new smooth scrolling in action in the playlist view:

The frame rate of the animation is synchronised with the desktop refresh rate when possible

Smooth scrolling is disabled by default. It can be enabled using the Use smooth (animated) scrolling option found at Preferences › Display › Columns UI › Setup.

(Note that in the playlist view, smooth scrolling performance may be reduced at high resolutions for complex configurations.)

Sticky playlist view group headings

In the playlist view, group headings can now be made sticky so that they stay in view when scrolling:

Sticky group headings work for multi-level groups too

Sticky group headings can be enabled using the Keep group headings in view when scrolling option found at Preferences › Display › Columns UI › Playlist view › Grouping.

Improved built-in spectrum analyser performance

The built-in spectrum analyser now renders in a background thread and synchronises with the Windows desktop refresh rate as closely as possible. Here’s the visualisation rendering at just under 60fps on my machine:

The visualisation is sized larger than it might normally be here

The ability to lock the main window size

A new main menu command has been added to lock the main window size, preventing it from being resized using its border. (Maximising and restoring the window is still allowed.)

The new menu command can be found at View › Lock window size.

Other changes

There were several other smaller changes in Columns UI 3.4.0 – see the release notes from version 3.4.0-alpha.1 onwards for full details.

How to update

If you currently have Columns UI installed, you can update to the latest version using the Help › Check for updated components command in foobar2000. (Note that Columns UI 3.4.1 is the last version to support Windows 7, 8 and 8.1. Versions from 3.5.0 onwards, including pre-releases, require Windows 10 or newer.)

(And if you don’t have foobar2000 at all, you can download it from the foobar2000 downloads page.)

musicmusic’s foobar2000 stuff

Album list panel 2.2.0 released

Autoplaylist creation

An updated compiler and removed support for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1

Other changes

How to update

Footnotes

Columns UI 3.6.0 released

Autoscroll in built-in panels

Spectrum analyser enhancements

Manually reload playlist view artwork

%playlist_name% in playlist view grouping scripts

Other changes

How to update

Columns UI 3.5.0 released

A search bar built into the playlist view

Customisation of lines next to playlist view group headings

%is_light% and %is_dark% variables in the playlist view

The ability to lock the main window size

New row and column resizing behaviour

Customisable fonts in more toolbars

Improved keyboard shortcut support in text inputs

An updated compiler and removed support for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1

Other changes

How to update

Columns UI 3.4.0 – release highlights

Smooth scrolling in most built-in panels

Sticky playlist view group headings

Improved built-in spectrum analyser performance

The ability to lock the main window size

Other changes

How to update

`%playlist_name%` in playlist view grouping scripts

`%is_light%` and `%is_dark%` variables in the playlist view