MEDIA PLAYERS

Hot on the heels of the release of Internet Explorer 7, Media Player 11 for Windows XP made its entrance this week. Download it here
.Media Player 11’s feature set includes integration with the MTV’s URGE online music store service (though it isn't available to Australians), as well as other online music, video and radio services.
Thumbnail and album art is a major focus. Microsoft may now be regretting having released so many early betas, though, since Apple has taken Microsoft's idea and expanded on it for iTunes 7.

Windows Media Player 11: cover-art browsing 1.0

iTunes 7: cover-art browsing 2.0

WMP11 also has "improved device detection", including support for over 200 portable and networked media devices. Of course, your iPod is still an unwelcome foreigner to WMP.
Interestingly, the latest rumour is that Microsoft's own Zune player will only work with WMP, as it has no USB mass storage mode for drag-and-drop file transfer.
Other features include shuffle sync, reverse sync and device exploration. Application and library navigation is also simpler.

Installing MP11 varies vary slightly depending on whether you’re upgrading straight from MP10, or from a beta of MP11. In both cases the setup makes you validate your copy of XP, and then accept the license agreement. A System Restore point is created – if System Restore is turned off you get a warning to this effect, but installation carries on regardless.
In the upgrade from Media Player 10, the following components get installed:

• User Mode Driver Framework
• Windows Media Format Runtime
• Windows Media Player
• Windows Media Library
• MS Delta
• Appcompat shim WMP10

And then the setup procedure kicks off. The upgrade process from MP11 beta is almost exactly the same, except that the Windows Media Library doesn’t get installed (it’s already present) and once installation is finished the workstation has to be restarted. Once that’s done, run MP11 and the configuration wizard starts up.










The setup procedure is largely unchanged from Media Player 10. You get the option of an Express or Custom setup. Express makes MP11 the default player for both music AND video, allows it to download CD/DVD information automatically from the internet as well as media usage rights. It signs you up anonymously to the Customer Experience Improvement Program and sets Media Guide as the active online store. In other words, the Express setup lets MP11 work on its own, rather independently of the user. Custom setup lets you disable any of these options – interestingly by default all the options are disabled.

When setting the default file associations, the MP11 setup picks up the old associations from MP10. It won’t try to take over. The online store window gives you a choice of Media Guide or nothing. You can set one up later through the Player’s menu. And that’s it – the old MP10 library is imported and the Player loads.










The timing of the release of MP11 and IE7 is pretty good for Microsoft. Both feature very heavily in Windows Vista, and Microsoft is clearly hoping to get Windows XP users familiar with them before Vista’s release. It’s actually a good practise in general – expose your users to new technology early, before they’re forced to use it.