The Microsoft Windows Media Player, also known as WMP and Wmplayer is Microsoft's fully functional media player that is included for free with any copy of Windows. It allows users to view photos, play music from a CD or music file, and watch video media. Additionally, Windows Media Player allows users to rip audio CDs and organize their music collections. It should be noted, however, that Windows Media Player will not play DVDs due to Copyright restrictions.
- Windows Media Player (WMP) is a media player and media library application developed by Microsoft that is used for playing audio, video and viewing images on personal computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, as well as on Pocket PC and Windows Mobile-based devices.
- Windows Media Player is one of the most popular multimedia players in the world. As the default choice for Windows PCs, this software lets you play music.
Note: Windows Media Player automatically rebuilds the database. I hope this helps you to fix Windows Media Player issues. If the issue persists or you have any issues with Windows in future, please do post it in Microsoft Community. A free Windows media player that is open source. MPC HC is a very lightweight media player that works for Windows computers. It plays video files and audio files, and it is open-source, which means you can.
Supported file formats
The Windows Media Player is capable of playing almost every computer media (sound and video) file format. Audio formats examples include MP3, WMV, WMA, CDA, WAV, and other formats. For video, AVI and MPEG-4 are supported, along with other file formats. Other video formats are supported as long as the associated video codecs are installed. Microsoft also released a mobile version, called Windows Media Player 10 Mobile. It supported MP3, ASF, WMA and WMV media formats.
Windows Media Player history
Is Windows Media Player Safe
The first version of the Windows Media Player came about in 1991; it was intended to be used with Windows 3.0. At that time, it was called Media Player. It has been included with every version of Windows since Windows 98 SE. The current release, bundled with Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10, is version 12. Since the release of version 7, support for burning and ripping audio CDs has been included as well.
How do I open Windows Media Player?
From Windows
Press the Windows key, type WMP, and then press Enter.
From MS-DOS and the Windows command line
If you enter something similar to the example text below into the command line, Windows Media Player open and start playing a song. This command can also be placed in a batch file to start a media file.
TipWhen entering the path to the MP3 or other media file, make sure to specify the complete path.
How do I play a music CD in Windows Media Player?
To play a music CD in Windows Media Player, follow the steps below.
- Open Windows Media Player.
- Open the CD drive in the computer and place the music CD in the disc tray, then close the disc tray.
- If the CD does not start to play automatically, look for the music CD in the left navigation pane of Windows Media Player. The music CD should be listed by the album title.
- Click the music CD, then select the music track you want to play.
- Click the play button to start playing the music CD.
Related pages
Media Player, Playback, Software terms
In Windows Media Player, you can play audio CDs, data CDs, and data DVDs that contain music or video files (also known as media CDs). You can also play video CDs (VCDs), which are similar to DVDs, although the video quality isn't as high.
Is Windows Media Player Installed
If you have a DVD drive and a compatible DVD decoder installed on your computer, you can use Windows Media Player to play a DVD-Video disc—this is the type of DVD that movies are distributed on. If you encounter an error indicating that you are missing a DVD decoder, select Web Help in the error message dialog box to determine how to obtain a decoder.
To play a CD or DVD
Insert the disc you want to play into the drive.
Typically, the disc will start playing automatically. If it doesn't play, or if you want to play a disc that is already inserted, open Windows Media Player, and then, in the Player Library, select the disc name in the navigation pane.If you inserted a DVD, select a DVD title or chapter name.
Note: If you start to play a DVD or VCD in the Player Library, the Player automatically switches to Now Playing mode.
The Blu-ray Disc format is not supported in Windows Media Player. To play a Blu-ray Disc, you need to use a non-Microsoft program that supports Blu-ray playback and a device capable of reading Blu-ray Discs.
If you previously selected Rip CD automatically on the Rip Music tab in the Options dialog box or on the Rip settings menu, a CD will immediately begin ripping after you insert it into the drive.
If you get a message that says that your computer is missing a codec or that you require a DVD decoder, you're probably trying to play, burn, or sync a file that was compressed by using a codec that Windows or the Player doesn't include by default. For more information about codecs, see Codecs: frequently asked questions.