Simple and intuitive playback controls are easier to find and use
Windows Media Player 11 offers unmatched choice and flexibility in managing and enjoying your digital media. With a new look and great features that make it easier to use, Windows Media Player 11 is built to handle music and video collections of nearly any size. Explore a new world of music through the integrated music services such as MTV URGE, and connect with mobile devices so you can have your music, pictures, and video wherever you want it.
When designing the new Windows Media Player, Microsoft considered the needs of a wide range of users—from people just getting started with digital media to discriminating audiophiles with very large collections on their PCs.
For a sleeker and more functional appearance, the "classic" Windows Media Player menus are now turned off by default and are accessible by right-clicking anywhere on the Player frame. (You can choose to re-enable the menus at any time.) Instead of navigating through menus, you can now quickly access common settings by clicking the arrow below each activity tab, such as Rip, Burn, or Sync. Integrated Back and Forward buttons help you zip between screens or retrace your steps if you get lost.
New playback controls are easier to find and use, are laid out more intuitively, and feature improved repeat, shuffle, and full-screen options.
Music now has its own focused media category view, with a simpler list in the Navigation Pane that shows artists, albums, songs, genres, years, and ratings. By right-clicking Library and selecting Show More Views, you can customize the look of your collection any way you like.
You can personalize the way you browse your collection.
Windows Media Player 11 brings album art to the center of your experience, with thumbnail views that appear when you browse your collection, as well as intuitive visual "stacks" of albums when you browse by genre or through playlists. If you’re missing album art, Windows Media Player can find it for you, or you can replace it with your own images.
As people build larger digital music collections by "ripping" CDs, buying from online stores, and downloading from the web, it's more important than ever to be able to quickly organize and explore all of your music. Windows Media Player 11 is optimized to handle massive collections of music—literally millions of tracks—so you can scroll, flip, and browse through your entire library without skipping a beat.
Search has been streamlined to simplify access to your library. If you know exactly what you want (or even if you can remember only part of a song or album title), the Instant Search feature in Windows Media Player 11 can scan across your entire library and return exactly what you're after—fast.
You can now rip songs from CDs into two new audio formats: Windows Media Audio Pro and lossless WAV. And if your computer has multiple CD drives, you can load them up and start ripping them all at once, so you can digitize your entire CD collection faster.
You can still create custom playlists by dragging songs and albums into the List Pane, and a new Shuffle Playlist feature makes it easier to create new playlists out of your favorite tracks with just a single click.
With large digital music libraries, it’s often hard to make sure songs match the media information (or metadata) that describes them. In addition to automated metadata tools that run in the background, Windows Media Player 11 now includes audio waveform matching that better pinpoints the exact album information that goes with your tracks.
Windows Media Player 11 features a completely new way to add music to your existing collection. Online stores such as the URGE music service from MTV are deeply integrated into the player, so you can explore their offerings using the same rich, intuitive features you use to search your own music library.
With the URGE music service from MTV—the featured partner for Windows Media Player 11—you'll find songs you’ve heard of and many you haven't. Fall in love with new songs, rediscover old ones, and get closer to artists than ever before. URGE offers 18 genres and countless styles, from pop, rock, and hip-hop to classical, jazz, and polka. With an URGE All Access subscription, you get unlimited access to music for a fixed monthly fee. Or just download songs, buying as you go.
Explore 18 genres of music with URGE.
Many other online stores are also accessible in Windows Media Player 11—just click the menu below the URGE logo on the task bar and select Browse All Online Stores to see a complete list of partners who have created plug-ins for Windows Media Player. You can then choose a different store to appear by default.
You can also discover a world of entertainment, including Internet radio, movie trailers, and more, by clicking Media Guide.
Beyond music, Windows Media Player 11 offers great new ways to enjoy video, pictures, and recorded TV. A number of new features help you get the most out of all of your media.
Windows Media Player 11 is designed to be simple and uniform, but each media type now has its own specialized view in the Navigation Pane. For example, you can explore video by actor or genre just as easily as you can sort albums by artist. You can sort pictures by the date they were taken. And you can organize recorded TV by series.
Video playback in Windows Media Player 11 features several enhancements for enjoying DVDs, including smoother playback and automatic full-screen viewing. The Home Premium and Ultimate editions of Windows Vista are equipped to play DVDs right out of the box—there's no need to purchase an additional plug-in.
There are many benefits to storing your entire digital media collection in Windows Media Player 11, including the ability to stay connected with your library wherever you go.
If you're running Windows Vista on a home network, you can use Windows Media Player 11 to share the contents of your library with other computers, or digital media devices such as Xbox 360, and access all of your media from anywhere in the home.
It is easier than ever to synchronize portable devices with Windows Media Player 11. A wizard helps you quickly set up your new device the first time it's connected.
You can still sync your device automatically or manually. But Windows Media Player 11 also offers a few cool new features, including Multi-PC Sync, which is great for managing home and work libraries and Shuffle Sync, which fills your device with a random sampling of your library.In addition, you can automatically convert many types of media to a format your devices understand—even for protected music and video purchased from Windows Media online stores.
Synchronize easily with other devices.
One of the great things about having a large digital media library is the ability to burn custom CDs with your favorite tracks. The Burn tab in Windows Media Player 11 has been enhanced to make this even better.
Compare Editions
