Application Settings
Overview
Section titled “Overview”HiFi Control provides a comprehensive settings system accessible from the main window. Settings are organized into tabbed sections, each contributed independently by a feature or plugin.
Settings Tabs
Section titled “Settings Tabs”| Tab | Description | Details |
|---|---|---|
| General | Appearance, startup behavior, and playback preferences | Below |
| Hotkeys | Global keyboard shortcut configuration | Global Hotkeys |
| Favorite Devices | Device discovery, selection, and management | Favorite Devices |
| Presets | Preset creation, editing, and trigger configuration | Presets |
| Spotify | Spotify account connection | Spotify Plugin |
| Tidal | Tidal account connection | Tidal Plugin |
| HEOS | HEOS account sign-in for streaming services | HEOS Plugin |
| Surface Dial | Dial click-action configuration | Microsoft Surface Dial |
| License | License key entry, activation, and status | |
| Updates | Update checking and version information | Version Management |
| Setup Wizard | Re-run the first-launch wizard | Setup Wizard |
| About | Version info, Installation ID, logs, recent issues, credits | Below |
The Spotify, Tidal, HEOS, and Surface Dial tabs only appear once the corresponding plugin is active. Additional settings cards may be added by other plugins in the future.
General Settings
Section titled “General Settings”Appearance
Section titled “Appearance”- Theme: Switch between Dark and Light themes (see Theming)
General
Section titled “General”- Stop playback on previous player: When switching to a new music player, automatically stop playback on the previous one
- Resume playback on new player: When selecting a new music player, automatically start playback
Startup
Section titled “Startup”- Start with Windows: Launch HiFi Control automatically at Windows login
- Start minimized: Open the application in minimized state
- Minimize to tray: Minimize to system tray instead of taskbar
About Settings
Section titled “About Settings”Settings → About groups app information and support tools into several cards:
App Info
Section titled “App Info”- App logo, current version, and a one-line tagline
- Installation ID: an anonymous per-installation identifier with a copy-to-clipboard button, used to correlate a log file you send to support with the crash reports HiFi Control already submits automatically
Updates
Section titled “Updates”A link card that jumps to Settings → Updates (see Version Management).
- Open log folder: opens
%LocalAppData%\HiFiControl\Logs\in Windows Explorer - Enable extended logging: raises local log verbosity for troubleshooting; requires an app restart to take effect
See Logging & Diagnostics for the full picture, including how to package and send log files to support.
Issues
Section titled “Issues”- View recent issues: opens a window listing the last 50 operations (e.g. commands sent to a device) that failed, with timestamp and description. A red badge with an unseen-count appears in the main window whenever there are unread failures; opening the list marks them as seen. See Logging & Diagnostics.
Resources
Section titled “Resources”- Report an issue: opens the contact form
- HiFi Control website: opens hificontrol.com
Open Source
Section titled “Open Source”Credits and license information for the open-source libraries HiFi Control is built on, each with a link to its source repository.
Settings Persistence
Section titled “Settings Persistence”All settings are saved automatically and applied immediately, with no explicit “Save” step, and restored when the application restarts. Most settings changes take effect right away; a few (e.g. Extended Logging) require a restart, and that’s called out where it applies.
Navigation
Section titled “Navigation”The settings panel uses a tabbed layout with breadcrumb navigation for sub-sections. Users can navigate back using breadcrumbs or the mouse back button.