Windows Media Player 11
Mon, 07/30/2007 - 22:31 — Ciprian
Windows Media Player 11 is one of the new applications included in Windows Vista. The interface is very simple and visually effective compared to version 10, the media library is organized in a better way, the performance has improved and new features were added. Overall it is the best version of Windows Media Player released by Microsoft.
In this tutorial we will show you how to customize your installation of Windows Media Player 11 and the basics about the program navigation.
Customizing the installation
When you run Windows Media Player 11 (WMP 11) for the first time, you will have to customize its installation.
You can use the Express Settings or you can create Custom Settings. We always recommend you to use the second option.
In the Privacy Options window you can configure very important settings. If you tick the "Display media information from the internet" checkbox, Windows Media Player will search and display information about the songs you are listening to. Checking the "Update music files by retrieving media information from the Internet" option is very useful as it allows WMP 11 to download information about the songs you are listening to and complete the missing information.
The third option allows WMP 11 to acquire the usage rights associated with the protected files found in your music library. Another important configuration option is the History. If you want to have the URL history of your played files saved in the player, just check the appropriate box and press Next.
Now you can select if you want to have any shortcuts on your desktop or in the quick launch bar.
At this step you can configure WMP 11 as your default music and video player or you can choose the file types that WMP 11 will play. If you prefer the second option you will have to go through the complete list of registered file types and choose the ones you want WMP 11 to play.
The basics about program navigation
As you can see in the screenshot below, WMP 11 has a tab based interface. You have four tabs (for the each of the main functions) and, on the left side, two buttons for navigating Back and Forward.
If you click on Now Playing you will have access to the current Playlist. Here you can arrange the order in which the files are played, you can rate them or remove them from the playlist. If you click again on Now Playing you will have access to a number of configuration options such as audio enhancements, video settings, plug-ins or visualizations.
In the Library tab you can navigate through your media library. You can view your media files using several predefined views such as: artist, album, rating, folder, etc. You can also organize your library, manage your playlists or use the search feature to find the files you want to play.
The Rip gives users access to several options for ripping music from their audio CD's. If you want to know more about this topic, you should read our guide on how to rip your music from audio CD's.
The Burn tab provides several options for burning your music on audio CD's. You can find more information in our guide about burning audio CD's in Windows Media Player 11.
As you can imagine, the Sync allows users to synchronize video, music and pictures to a wide variety of portable devices, including portable media players, storage cards, and Portable Media Centers. Unfortunately we do not have a tutorial on this topic. We will try to create one in the upcoming weeks.
Related articles:
Windows Media Player 11 Keyboard shortcuts
View media content using Windows Media Player Firefox Plug-in
How to play audio CD’s in Windows Vista
How to burn an audio CD in Windows Vista
How to rip music from an audio CD in Windows Vista
How to add album art and update album information
Synchronize Mobile Devices With Your PC Using Sync Center
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Windows Media Player 11 - Simplicity in Design
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Comments
Window media player -11 is not installing in window vista
Respected sir,
In my computer is window vista operation system. So many time i try to install window media player -11 ( file size 24.5 MB) but, it is not installing . I donot know why it is not installing?
pls. send me guidelines.
Regards
S.kumar
Windows Media Player 11 is
Windows Media Player 11 is installed by default in Windows Vista. Unless you have the "Windows Vista N" editions which are sold in Europe, it should be there.
You can find the shortcut directly in the Start Menu or you can use Instant Search to find it.
how do i uninstall windows
how do i uninstall windows media player 11? i don't like it and i want to get rid of it.
Media player error
I have Windows Vista and having a very big problem with my windows media 11 .I try to open up the media player but it always says it needs to be reinstalled, but when i try to reinstall it, it alway says the most recent version is installed and then it closes, How do i fix this problem? Its driving me nuts.
did you fix windows media player?
I have the same problem but didn't see any response to your question. If you figured it out I'd be gratefull for some help. It doesn't make much sense.
Thanks
how do I get cd covers for
how do I get cd covers for music in media player 11 then transfer it to my music
RE: how do I get cd covers for music...
Assuming you've added MP3's to your library... Open WMP. Goto the Library. Just to the left of the search box, there is a button with a drop down menu. From that menu select "Icon". So your MP3's are displayed as CD cases.
I use Google image search to locate albulm art. Amazon is another good source. Once you locate a image for the album art (in internet Explorer) right click the image and select Copy.
Go back to WMP and right click the blank CD icon and select "Paste Album Art". This will embed the image into the MP3 file.
Notes: If you use the get information/art from the internet from WMP the album art is stored in a DB file. So if you reload the OS you lose your album art. My method of pasting it embeds it into the file so in the event of an OS reload you wont lose the images.
Optimal image sizes are: 200x200 but I have used images as large as 500x500. Make sure the image is as square as possible (ie 100x100, 200x200, 300x300 etc).
Paste Album Art Missing
Hi, This is driving me mad, i've looked at loads of sites and got the same instruction and seen screen shots but on my media player 11 it has text on the cdbox icon saying "paste art here" but when i right click there is not "paste album art" option, i definitely have it in my clipboard, and all the options i've seen in screenshots are there like "Find Album Info", "Update Album Info" just not paste..
Pasting Album Art
I agree that this is maddening! I used Microsoft Office Picture Manager to compress the size of my scanned album art jpg from 1.2Mb down to a 31k "web page" size and then copied it to the clipboard from within that program. No "Paste Album Art" option appeared in Windows Media Player 11 when I then tried to paste it into the album.
However, if I then saved the jpg from Office Picture Manager to disc, opened it with "Windows Photo Gallery", copied it to the clip board and right clicked the album in Windows Media Centre, the "Paste Album Art" option appeared.
If you can't paste album art, do it from song tag editor
You can also right click on one of the songs, go to advanced tag editor, pictures tab and add picture as type cover. this might seem a longer way of doing it but for some reason an option to paste album art doesn't show up for me.