INSTAL WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER 9 PORTABLE
INSTAL WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER 9 SERIES

Corona was exciting for a number of reasons-not the least of which was the inclusion of powerful new audio and video codecs (WMA 9 and WMV 9, respectively) which scaled up and down the compression and quality bar in order to handle virtually any digital media need.

INSTAL WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER 9 SERIES

Just months after shipping XP, Microsoft began showing off its next generation digital media platform, codenamed Corona and later named as Windows Media 9 Series (released in 2002, see my review). In total, these features make working with digital music in particular far nicer than with other systems.

And when you accessed these files from the shell, XP's task panes changed, depending on which type of file was selected. So when you ripped a CD with MPXP, it copied album art and other meta data information to the appropriate subfolder under My Music. MPXP also integrated fully with My Music and My Videos, two of the media-oriented special shell folders in Windows XP. In Windows XP (released in 2001, see my review), Microsoft upped the ante with Media Player for Windows XP (MPXP, or WMP 8), a more attractive rendition of Microsoft's all-in-one player that offered customization options that greatly uncluttered the UI. At the time, I blasted WMP7's convoluted and confusing interface but looking at it now, you can see that it was the first step in an evolution we're still partaking in today.

INSTAL WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER 9 PORTABLE

Windows Media Player 7 (WMP, see my review) grew out of that user experience effort, providing a Web- like interface that aggregated a slew of common digital media tasks-media management, CD playing and ripping, Internet radio playback, portable device support, and the like-into a single place. With Windows Me ( review), however, Microsoft attempted to greatly expand its support for task-based user interfaces, and that product would have originally included a number of Activity Centers, special dashboard-like applications that would have provided a handy front-end for related tasks. Previous to Windows Millennium Edition (Windows Me, released in 2000), Windows Media Player was a simple applet designed for playing back audio and video content within Windows.

But first, let's take a quick walk through the past and see how Windows Media Player has evolved from a simple audio and video playback utility into a modern and powerful all-in-one jukebox. In this review, I'll examine WMP 10's new features, compare the product to competition from Apple and other companies, and explain how WMP 10 fits into Microsoft's wider strategy.

And though I have some concerns that WMP 10 might still leave a bit too much on the table for competitors such as Apple, with its iTunes jukebox and iPod portable audio player, it's quite possible that Microsoft's broad-based approach to solving digital media needs will ultimately be the correct one.

I'm happy to report that Microsoft has largely accomplished these goals. WMP 10 is also the center of Microsoft's digital media strategy, which seeks to holistically approach consumer requirements for acquiring, consuming, and sharing digital media. Released to the public alongside a beta version of MSN Music ( see my preview) and three Portable Media Center devices ( read my review) as the first phase in the Windows XP Reloaded marketing campaign ( see my new activity center), Windows Media Player 10 is the linchpin of the Crescent wave of products. In June, I previewed Microsoft's next Windows Media Player (WMP) release, Windows Media Player 10, and as I hinted would be the case in that article, a lot has changed since then.

Instal windows media player 9