Windows Media Player 12 uses libraries to organize the media (music, video, pictures or recorded TV) on your computer. In fact, Microsoft even recommends looking for a DVD movie player in Windows Store. If you think that playing DVDs or Blu-rays is not an outrageously modern operation, Windows Media Player will make you reconsider that, because it is set for ancient standards and, consequently, it is not capable of such tasks. However, for plenty of other formats (OGG, FLAC, MKV, FLV), you’re going to need to install the necessary codecs. On the other hand, customizing the settings involves a pretty time-consuming process, considering today’s standards, especially if you decide to pick the file types you want to be played by Media Player.īy default, the application comes loaded with a few codecs to render media formats such as AVI, WMV, MP4, MOV for video, and WMA, MP3 or WAV for audio. These include making WMP the default player, downloading usage rights and details about media automatically, as well as sending usage information to Microsoft. There is an initial configuration process, which can be swiftly skipped if you decide to run the application with the recommended settings. In need of major updates for the past years, the application has remained stuck in time, while user needs have increased constantly.

In this case, you can download the component separately and add it to the system. It is also available in the freshly released Windows 8, although Microsoft has introduced nothing new in it since version 12, which is delivered in Windows 7 as well.īecause of the antitrust ruling against Microsoft, the company is now forced to ship the operating system without Windows Media Player in some countries. The life of Windows Media Player spans several Windows and, for a good stretch of time, it was willfully used for playing media files.

Install windows media player 12