Guide to the current Windows edition with two areas: Player for choosing and playing music; Management for media, sources, the index, backup, import and export. The 45-day demo provides all available Pro features for testing. Earlier manuals describe their respective versions; use this guide for current navigation.
In Management, maintain your media entries, cover images, inside images, identifiers and shelf information with the existing collection functions. Player adds music selection and playback; both areas use the same data. Existing collection entries are not silently replaced. Explicit links connect recordings to suitable collection items after your review.
Player is on the left and Management on the right. Green framed Back to start selection buttons stay visible at the top and on the right of the fixed player, even after scrolling. Exit Musikregal is a red button on the start screen only. Management uses five clear menu groups. Menus need no scrolling; long data lists have their own area. Controls do not cover track rows.
A fresh demo has no configured music sources; automatic scanning is initially off. In Management → Music management, choose your own primary folder and an optional fallback folder. Then update the library manually or enable periodic scans. Sources must be reachable and readable. Available tags are imported; missing information remains unknown. An unreachable folder does not erase indexed recordings. Original MP3/WAV files remain unchanged.
The library reads available file tags and keeps the original values. Song languages come from suitable tags or confirmed index assignments. Common language codes are normalized. Missing assignments remain Unknown; a foreign-language title alone does not establish the song language. Source availability and missing metadata are separate facts. Music files are not retagged.
Search titles, artists or albums. Exact complete matches appear first. If the intended search is unclear, choose Search term at the beginning or Search term in the text. Tick tracks on the left: the selection count is shown; All on this page affects only the current page. Play selection starts the marked tracks; Queue selection adds them to the queue. Combine genres and confirmed song languages. All removes that particular filter; Reset removes search and filter restrictions.
With no cutoff year set, the oldies selection uses explicitly marked oldies genres. An optional year adds recordings with a known year up to that cutoff. Combine this with other filters. A missing year does not establish an oldies match; original genre tags are not rewritten.
Play, pause, skip, seek and adjust volume. Crossfade can be off or set from 1 to 10 seconds. With 5 seconds, the next track starts during the current track’s final 5 seconds: both play together while the old one fades out and the new one fades in. The new track has then played for about 5 seconds. The next track is prepared in advance; the setting does not create a waiting pause. Unavailable or unreadable sources can still cause loading problems.
Plus queues a track; Play starts playback. Clear queue removes upcoming tracks while the current track continues at its position and then ends. The count shows upcoming tracks. The heart appears only in the fixed player and always favourites the currently displayed track, even after the results have been scrolled elsewhere. Its state follows track changes. Saved playlists and favourites remain available; removing list entries does not delete audio files.
Review original metadata and add known genres or song languages to the index. In Music management, use Assign language to assign confirmed languages to selected tracks. Multiple values are supported. Unknown information stays unknown until a reliable assignment is available. These changes affect the index and do not rewrite music-file tags.
Add or rename library genres and enable the categories you want to use. All and none controls make larger selections easier. Standard interface labels follow the selected UI language; your own renamed labels remain your own. Genre management does not change the original genre tags in the music files.
Go to Management → Collection → Media overview and search by artist, album or recorded track title. Individual track files without album information remain separate results without an album assignment. Compare physical editions and digital album locations while preserving every recorded original edition. Digital assignments use album information or explicit links. Album folders remain distinct from tracks in general music folders. MP3 bitrates show available values, such as 320 kbit/s or mixed 128-320 kbit/s; missing values are unknown, and WAV is separate. Source availability is shown independently. A primary and fallback copy do not create a new work. Confirm explicit collection links after review; similar names alone do not prove identical recordings.
Download the report to review repeated locations and possible duplicate recordings. Identical file bytes or matching audio payloads provide stronger evidence than a similar title or duration. A deep scan can conservatively compare whole recordings across encodings; unclear results stay separate. The report deletes, moves or rewrites no source file. Reported sizes are logical bytes, not guaranteed physical storage savings.
The library can try another verified available location when a primary recording cannot be read. A configured fallback with the same relative structure helps locate another copy. Keep this copy as a backup. Recovery should continue from the previous playback position when possible. Network interruptions, unavailable files or unsupported recordings can still stop playback; availability is not universally guaranteed.
Among confirmed identical recordings, playback prefers the highest verified available bitrate that meets the minimum of 128 kbit/s. Unknown bitrate remains visible for review. Bitrate alone does not guarantee sound quality, and no conversion can restore missing recording information. VM Pro does not convert or upscale the audio files.
Music catalog export contains index metadata, not the source audio. Keep independent copies of your music folders. Continue using the collection's existing backup functions for its supported data. An exported music catalog is useful for later exchange but does not add new music commands to an older Android app.
After installation, configure and scan one of your own music folders. Try selection, Plus and Play, the current-track heart and Clear queue. At 5 seconds of crossfade, both tracks must be audible together for 5 seconds. Check language assignments, All and Reset. If you use a fallback folder, test that it is reachable too.
After 45 days, adding media items, printing, music playback, music scans, editing the music index and voice features require an appropriate active licence. Your existing media collection remains available for queries, editing, deletion, export and backup. After expiry, import and restore cannot create additional entries either. An existing suitable activation is retained during a program update; the trial period does not restart.