Windows Media Player

Windows Media Player, often called WMP, was a popular software program made by Microsoft. It was used to play music and videos on computers running the Windows operating system. For many years, it came built-in with every Windows computer, making it easy for people to enjoy their favorite songs and movies.

Besides playing media, Windows Media Player could also copy music from CDs, create new CDs, and help organize music on portable players or phones. It supported special formats like Windows Media Video and Windows Media Audio, and it even had different "skins" to change how it looked.

Over time, Microsoft updated Windows Media Player with new versions. The last big update was version 11, which came with Windows Vista. Version 12 arrived with Windows 7 and was included in later versions of Windows, though new apps like Xbox Music and Microsoft Movies & TV started taking its place. Today, Windows 11 includes a newer version known simply as Media Player.

For the newest version, see Windows Media Player (2022).

History

The first version of Windows Media Player was released in October 1991, together with Windows 3.0 with Multimedia Extensions. It was called Media Player and could play special animation files. Over the years, Microsoft made many updates to improve how it played music and videos.

New versions came out with each update of Windows. By 1999, Windows Media Player had its own version numbers, separate from Windows. It got new looks, better sounds, and more features. In 2004, it also came with a music store to compete with iTunes, but that store was later replaced by Zune players. With newer Windows versions like Windows Vista and Windows 7, Windows Media Player kept getting better at playing different types of media. However, starting with Windows RT in 2012, Windows Media Player was no longer included.

Windows Media Player (2022)

A new app called Media Player replaced both Groove Music and the older Windows Media Player. It started being offered to all Windows 11 users on February 15, 2022, and came to Windows 10 users in January 2023.

This new Media Player can play videos too. It changed from being just a music service to a full media player. The album cover view now fills the whole screen, and the small player got a refresh. It also got better support for people who use keyboards or other assistive technologies.

Features

Windows Media Player can play audio, video, and pictures. It has features like fast forward and reverse, and it can organize media files in a library. You can arrange media by album, artist, or genre.

The player shows visualizations while playing music, such as bars and waves. It supports many audio and video formats and can burn audio CDs. Users can sync media to portable devices and control playback with a mini-mode on the taskbar. The player also has online features for browsing music stores and streaming media to other devices.

Security issues

Microsoft Windows Media Runtime in Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows Server had a problem that let someone do bad things if a user opened a special media file. This could let the attacker change or delete data, or make new accounts with full access, but only if the user had special permissions. Microsoft fixed this issue with an important update on September 8, 2009.

Other versions

Microsoft made versions of Windows Media Player for different devices and operating systems like Windows Mobile, classic Mac OS, Mac OS X, Palm-size PC, Handheld PC, and Solaris. These versions are no longer supported by Microsoft. The first version of the Zune software was based on Windows Media Player, but later versions were not.

Windows Media Player for Pocket PC was first announced on January 6, 2000. The version called "Media Player 10 Mobile," released in October 2004, worked similarly to the Windows version of WMP 10. It could play music and videos, show album art, and sync with the desktop version of WMP 10.

For Mac OS X, version 9 was the last version of Windows Media Player made for this system. Development stopped in 2006, and Microsoft now uses a third-party plugin called WMV Player (made by Flip4Mac) to help play some Windows Media files in Apple's QuickTime Player.

European Commission case

In March 2004, the European Commission fined Microsoft €497 million. They said Microsoft broke rules by using its big share of the market for computer operating systems to control other areas, like media players. Because of this, Microsoft had to offer a version of Windows without Windows Media Player, called Windows XP N. Later versions like Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8 also had "N" editions. People could add Windows Media Player back using Windows Update.

Release history

Before Windows Media Player came along in Windows 98 Second Edition, older versions of Microsoft Windows had separate programs like CD Player, Deluxe CD Player, DVD Player and Media Player to play media files. One version of Windows Media Player, version 11, was not made for Windows Server 2003.