Hi Johan,
Well, I think I recall you *asked* that before. But, besides I forgot about it, there are some things which makes me leave it as it is;
First of all (and now you may be right it has worked before !) this is all so "fragile" (read : difficult to have it consistent for all situations), that for that reason I rather leave it as it is. Everybody for sure will recall how many changes were applied to it, while those changes actually were solutions to "bugs". This is not because I created it too fast or anything, but because indeed there are so many combinations possible. And before you know it, your icons are not there while you need them.
Secondly, I think it can be justified how it currently works. I mean, it is not much different from bringing up XX yourself during playback, at selecting a next album (never mind playing is still commencing). In your example, when XX is brought up automatically, it is not brought up to reset the environment, but merely to let you choose another album (etc.). Theoretically you won't be needing more for that than what you get currently. Well, coincidentally you do want to do something else, and then indeed it requires a click on Stop (or remove XX at all). This is not a big deal, I think.
The shortly being visible of the old wallpaper (from the previous album) as you explained it, is another matter, of which I have wondered where it comes from. I mean, I don't think I am doing that and it is Windows which digs it up, somehow. Anyway, *that* is something that should be solved, but please not by the means you described.
Btw, notice that in order to let it all go as it now goes (of which I think it is ok, see above) I must use some technical means to detect how the environment is at that moment. One of these means is "does XXEngine3 run or not ?". Now, the kind of nasty situation which is in order here, is that while XXEngine3 starts XXHighEnd, XXHighEnd sees that XXEngine3 is running (for a very short while). And thus it thinks sound is playing, and thus it behaves like when you bring it up yourself when playback really is going on.
I hope this is a little satisfactory for you ...
Peter