On eve of Christmas, VLC Player dresses up its cone with a Santa hat, this hat stays on the VLC cone till January 1st, if you don’t want to see the Christmas hat in the VLC player, you can easily disable or remove it on Windows (including Windows 11), Mac and Linux, here is how that can be done.
For every year, in the month of December, starting from the 18th to January 1st, the system tray and cone icons of the VLC player wear a Santa hat.
This happens automatically during the holiday season and is indeed an Easter egg embedded into the player by the Videolan developers.
How to Set VLC Player in Windows 8 As Default Player
We have no objections or problems with the hat, but if you want to get the VLC icon back without Santa or Christmas hat, here is how to do that.
How to Remove the Santa hat in VLC Player
We have no objections or problems with the hat, but if you want to get the VLC icon back without Santa or Christmas hat, here is how to do that.
On Windows:
- Open VLC Player,
- Click on Tools and select ‘Preferences‘
- Now at the bottom of the window select “All”, under ‘Show settings‘
- Select Interface > expand Main interfaces and, select ‘Qt’
- Scroll down in the right pane and remove the tick mark for “Allow automatic icon changes”,
6. Click ‘Save‘, and close the player.
Now if you reopen VLC Player, you will see the regular cone and tray icons.
How to disable Building Font Cache Dialog of VLC Player
On Mac:
- Tools > Preferences > Interface > Main interfaces> Mac OS X > uncheck “ allow icon to be changed”,
- Restart the Player.
Please note that I no way trying to disturb your Christmas Spirit of you, you can keep the Santa hat icon or remove it, it’s up to you.
This article was written to let you know there is a way exists to get the regular VLC icon back in the place of Santa hat during these holidays.
How to Play Your Videos with Special Effects in VLC Player
I take this as an opportunity to say “Happy Xmas” and New year to all readers in advance. Please stay on the topic, and don’t post spam comments with Xmas and new year wishes.
Summary: Do you know VLC Player shows Santa hat during the holiday season in ending of every year from Christmas to January 1st on Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms? Here is how you can delete it and restore the regular VLC Cone icon back.
Thank you for this. I am not a christian so I don’t participate in xmas and the icon was irritating and intrusive. This is the first site I found (out of many) that had the simple, direct solution.
Thanks for your words and welcome to Techdows.
Santa is not a christian figure. He was created by Coca cola in an advertising as a parody of st nicolas and was kept because he looked better.
Actually Santa is an off shot of the Christian figure “Sinterklaas”. The Dutch brought over Sinterklaas “St Nick” and santa eveolved from there. CocaCola had absolutely nothing to do with creating Santa, other than the fact that they used his likeness during a brilliant ads to make money.
I’m not a christian either, but I’m also not so wound up that a funny little hat on an icon is upsetting to me. So strange, the things that people classify as irritating.
Same here, I get its the holidays and all but its being shoved down my throat left and right.
Thanks much from a rational thinking and common sense atheist.
I’m so irritated by how people get irritated about what irritates others.
Irritation about how people are irritated by what irritates others really annoys me.
Perfect it works! Thank you.
wonderful! glad to get rid at last of that silly icon!
Thanks!
I hated that little coca-cola commercial in my dock.
I’m VERY happy to have learned how to remove this obnoxious infiltration. No doubt it was added in the spirit of cheer and whatnot, but it’s completely inappropriate. And not because of my religious opinions: Christmas is to christianity as Spam is to meat … stray bits of it in there, but mostly a bunch of crap for padding profits. Click, toggle off, back to … a normal traffic cone, because nothing says “time to watch videos” better than construction ahead, or wtf….
bah, humbug!
thanks for this clear & concise article, i appreciate it!
Nice, its working fine….
Thank you so much for your help. I live in Israel where I enjoy not seeing any xmas decorations outside, much less on my own computer!
I deplore the unbridled temerity of the VLC programmer … he haughtily eschews opportunities to present the correct answer (as Venkat Eswarlu so graciously did here) … and he does that here and in other venues.
Today (in December 2013) I spent valuable time ascertaining the source of and getting rid of this undocumented non-pre-approved nonsense. I checked whether VLC had improperly accessed my net connection to do an unauthorized update. I learned that it had not done that, and then learned that the programmer had lied by omission.
He put in a functionality whereby my machine was directed to do something he wanted it to do that I did not want it to do . Nowhere in his documentation does he disclose that his program set will do that. Nowhere in the install process does he show any concern whatsoever about user preferences regarding the matter.
I will never again trust that programmer to not be nonchalantly self-indulgent and casually dismissive regarding the sovereignty of users over their machines.
A programmer who puts unauthorized non-pre-announced surprises in his code arrogantly violates the trust of the user and so casts programmers into disrepute.
I am grateful to the programmer for his excellent program; however, I am incensed at his high-handed contemptuous imperiousness in presenting an unannounced date-triggered behavioral change surreptitiously.
I am a programmer and I would NEVER deliberately insert a surprise behavior in a program. If its really so irrepressibly cute, give the installer an option to allow or disallow cutesy on-the-fly customizations sneaked in by the programmer. Programs are always inexorable commanders to the machine and so should always be absolutely abject servants to the user who owns the machine.
I still think VLC is the best program set of its kind but I detest the damnable disdain exhibited by the programmer for the authority over their machines of the persons using his programs.
Not sure if you are still around, but I strongly believe your words should also be applied with an atom bomb to the new found virus/malware package called Windows 10.
Thanks so much for your incitely and totally accurate depiction of what a computer is supposed to do and be, that of a servant to the owner, not a chat box by some devious programmer to change what you did not allow or even solicit.
Thank you for this usefull article !!!
I think this option should have been disabled by default. If anyone wants this special, non-consensual option, let them activate it!
The whole world is not yet completely stupefied by this commercial purge. Some struggle … and are proud to have resisted, despite the pseudo-well-thought imposed by our capitalist system.
The “Christmas spirit” is theoretically empathy … nothing to do with believing that others think like us and want a Christmas reminder in all their software.
Respect for the other, above all …
Le respect de l’autre avant tout…
Thank you!
thanx alot
THANKS so much. The Santa hat icon on my high-resoloution laptop monitor was making it hard for me to locate minimised instances of VLC because there’s not enough orange showing!
Thanks for the simplest answer I have found on the net this morning.
Cheers
jc
That stuff works !
By bookmarking this page you could avoid doing that next year.
Thank you for posting this!! I spent hours hunting through folders for a .png, ,jpg or .ico file to remove. Found what looked like a configuration file, but wasn’t sure if I could safely change the text without blowing up the program. Emailed the video lan team. An admin mailed me this link. I was concerned that video lan might have surreptiously accessed my system over the internet and installed this Christian holiday icon. It isn’t professional to hardcode religious imagery into a software application. Why not offer decorated logo icons of all sorts as a downloadable add-on? Those who want it, will think it is ‘cool’ .
The lated December holiday season is NOT just for Christians, it is a time of celebration and renewal for most secular cultures as well as many religions. Santa adornments are most assuredly not Christian. I fail to see how offence could be taken by anyone… unless they have an issue with Santa or Coca Cola.
As someone mentioned, Santa has nothing to do with CocaCola, except they used the existing character in their ads. The reason people don’t want the Santa hat there is because not everyone observes that holiday, and to force the display on everyone is disrespectful. As I asked someone above, would you like it if your telephone company forced you to listen to Christmas music for several weeks during December, before allowing you to make your phone call?
I had a version from 2011 and there was no box for “allow automatic icon changes”. Now I downloaded the most current version and hope it is there.
Pietas, yep, it is there in the latest 2.1.5 rincewind, but it has not started showing the hat.
Yeah, obviously such nonsense should only be inflicted on those that opt in.
Thanks for the instructions! But that doesn’t work for Version 2.0.4, if you can add an update for later versions, that’d be great!
George, on Windows for VLC 2.1.5, I can see the santa hat, by follow the instructions mentioned in the post I successfully restored the default VLC icon, re-follow the steps once again and let me know if they doesn’t work for you.
I’m glad to be able to remove the Christmas hat icon. Thanks for the helpful info.
I’m also glad to report that the Windows instructions work exactly the same on Linux.
But I’m upset at the attitudes of most of the commenters here. I’m a Christian and I know good and well, like anybody else who has done their homework, that true Christianity and Christmas as it is commonly celebrated are logically and morally opposed. Santa hats aren’t Christian, they’re secular, at least insofar as popular usage is concerned.
Thanks for the tip.
I’d like to know if, between those who say “Santa isn’t Christian”, there is one, only one who is not a Christian himself. Please, accept our non-Christian sensitivity with some empathy, thanks.
I agree with sysprog (above) from last year (December 22, 2013 @ 3:44 am) when he says:
I deplore the unbridled temerity of the VLC programmer … He put in a functionality whereby my machine was directed to do something he wanted it to do that I did not want it to do . Nowhere in his documentation does he disclose that his program set will do that. Nowhere in the install process does he show any concern whatsoever about user preferences regarding the matter. A programmer who puts unauthorized non-pre-announced surprises in his code arrogantly violates the trust of the user and so casts programmers into disrepute. I am grateful to the programmer for his excellent program; however, I am incensed at his high-handed contemptuous imperiousness in presenting an unannounced date-triggered behavioral change surreptitiously.
The times are too scary (viruses everywhere, identity theft, NRA spying, etc, etc) for this kind of unasked for change to be made to my computer in such a way.
That said, I do very much like vlc player and use it as my default media player.
And thanks for the useful info!
Is there any way you could detail how to actually go into the vlc programming itself and remove the image-changing code? Or at least show where it is so that I can change the image to that of a cat or something instead of the offending Santa hat?
greg more, “Is there any way you could detail how to actually go into the vlc programming itself and remove the image-changing code? Or at least show where it is so that I can change the image to that of a cat or something instead of the offending Santa hat?”, to know the answer, you should ask this to VLC development team in their forums. Thanks for your comment.
Thank you. I was offended by this display of Christianity embedded into a software application.
Thank you for helping me rid my VLC of that stupid Capitalistmas icon.
Thanks.
I will refrain from projecting my anger at the childish and culturally insensible VLC programmers. I am sorry for them. Wish them insight and personal growth.
Some of you people are really strange.
THX. I’m against God and chrismas.
I must be strange. I **like** the little hat thingy. It’s ever so cute and merry.
Thank you for this article. Even though I think the hat is cute, it is nice to be able to switch it off should I wish. Merry Christmas, happy holidays and a lovely new year to everyone.
I have no problem with the hat, I’m just surprised by it because I’ve been using VLC for years and this is the first time (just happened today) that it’s ever changed. I’m wondering what was “wrong” before that it never changed. Very weird. Great article though.
Merry Christmas and thanks for the hat! Please make it impossible to turn off in the future. Thank you!
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU
I wish the VLC people would realize it’s not a good idea to force one’s religion on people.
i’m nat christian but i don’t have problem with though + its cute funny nd also keeps ya relevent.
i like it but was wondering how come.
by the way its not iritating couse its sign for christians and jxt a funny red hat for none christians like me
so guys lets jxt be positive
I am an atheist and have no objection to the Santa logo, which as others have pointed out is not a ‘core’ Christian symbol, although some users might mistakenly think VLC was contacting the Internet even if it had been set up not to. At least, this was my worry when I first saw it several years ago.
Anyway VLC is an outstanding program and these days I use nothing else for video or audio, whether on Windows, Linux or Android.
Seems like I come to this site every year to disable this dumb feature.
I am Jewish. I do not do Santa Clause or Christmas and do not appreciate
anyone assuming I do by putting in such pictorials. I find this to
be offensive. Thank you for showing a way to remove it.
Even when I was a “Christian” I found this kind of stuff to be childish and stupid.
Thank you for this solution.
For the commenters, a user’s religion or whether they celebrate the holiday is entirely irrelevant. I happen to be an atheist and I also happen to despise Christmas, but it’s more than that.
If the programmer had used an image of the Darwin ichthys on Darwin Day, religious people would be crapping themselves about it and they wouldn’t be criticized for the complaint. That distinction of treatment is what we call privilege.
VLC is a media player, not a mechanism to push social memes – even with the ability to change the behavior doesn’t really make up for being opted-in by default. What if instead of a Christmas icon, it was an “easter egg” that rick-rolled the user? Some might like it or think it’s funny to be Rickmas-rolled, but don’t complain about the other users who express their distaste and desire to eliminate it.
it’s not about christmas.
it’s about pushing ‘whatever-you-want’ to the people, when people do not want nothing, like marketing research, phone calls with unknown id from companies what’re trying to sell me something/anything, revealing personal data, commercials, open the door to some religious cults’ members what’re trying to persuade me that their gods’ better that none/others…
i’m tired about all that garbage.
Yeah, that icon is super-ugly. It just looks way worse than the default icon, both on my Mac and in Windows.
Thanks for the tip on removing it! Much appreciated.
Thanks so much for this! :)
As a Christian, I find the hat offensive. Christmas has nothing to do with God, the Bible or Jesus. Christmas is a pagan festival, a festival of self-indulgence and merriment, and a festival of commercialism. The spirit of Christmas is the very opposite of the spirit of Jesus. I don’t want anything to do with Christmas in my house.
Christmas is for tards. At least give the option to add it instead of adding it for everyone. Yeah, it’s a free program, but his makes me want to uninstall VLC and use another program.
Thank you for this! I had VLC for years and then all of a sudden, the icon changed. Back then, there was no way to change it back to the orange cone. I’d sent a message to the developer and he was really nasty about it. I ended up having to edit some source files and recompile the program from the source to get rid of the icon. What bothered me most (beyond the nasty attitude of the developer) was that this was done without any consideration for the user. I don’t recall ever being alerted about this feature being added and to start there was no easy way to toggle it on/off. Not everyone is Christian and not every Christian wants a Santa hat icon hanging around for so long. I’m glad they finally put in a way to toggle switch. This is a lot easier than editing source files and recompiling the app from the source code. It seems pretty clear that the developer didn’t want to add this toggle switch, though. Not only is it buried deep down in custom preferences, it doesn’t even honestly say what it is. The app doesn’t change the icon for any other reason (so far as I can tell). So, having this option as: “allow automatic icon changes,” comes across as some P.R. firm alteration of: “show Santa hat icon during Christmas.” It’s not something unexpected after my exchanges with the developer, though. It’s a beautiful piece of software, the VLC player, but all that guy’s skill went to coding rather than human interaction.