Designed by media lovers for media lovers. Windows Media Player 12—available as part of Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10*—plays more music and video than ever, including Flip Video and unprotected songs from your iTunes library! Organize your digital media collection, sync digital media files to a portable device, shop online for digital media content, and more—with Windows Media Player 12.
Windows Media Player Download
Streamlined playback modes
The Now Playing mode is a study in minimalism: It shows only the controls you need, so nothing comes between you and your music or video. A new taskbar thumbnail with playback controls makes previewing easier and more fun.

Plays more media in more places
Using The Groove Music or Microsoft Movies & TV Apps. Windows Media Player is a brand that Microsoft has long since given up on. Originally, this was in favor of pushing its also-defunct Zune brand with the Zune Music Pass app, capitalizing on the early success Microsoft had with portable media devices. That's why a lot of people like to use the Windows Media Player 11 when they're viewing file types from a few years ago. For example, this is a good app to use to view AVI files. A lot of users enjoy being able to make their library using the media player and change the names of the files within the library.
Windows Media Player 12 has built-in support for many popular audio and video formats. Sync music, videos, and photos, or stream media to your devices so you can enjoy your library anywhere, at home or on the road.

- Get the latest Media Player downloads from the Official Microsoft Download Center.
- The Skins Factory delivered a groundbreaking Windows Media Player 11 skin fit for a hero. Contracted by Microsoft and Warner Bros. Entertainment, the Batman Windows Media Player skin is completely animated and ready to instill fear in the heart of vill ains worldwi de. This is Windows Media Player user interface design at its best - stunning motion graphics, powerful sound effects, media.
- This should resolve the Windows Media Player issue and it should play videos normally now. In case, it still does not work, move onto the 4th method. Method 4: Using Codec Pack. Step 1: Open Google.com search for media player codec pack click on the 1st result.
For info about the latest version for your system, see Get Windows Media Player.
Is Windows Media Player Still Available
To manually troubleshoot or upgrade your installation of the Player, try the following:

Click the Start button, type features, and then select Turn Windows features on or off.
Expand Media Features and see whether the Windows Media Player check box is selected. If it is, clear the check box.
Click OK and then restart your PC. This will remove your current version of Windows Media Player.
After your PC has restarted, repeat step 1.
Expand Media Features and select the Windows Media Player check box.
Click OK and then restart your PC. This will reinstall the latest version of Windows Media Player for your system (Windows Media Player 12, with a few exceptions).
Note: Windows Media Player isn't available for Windows RT 8.1.

* Windows Media Player 12 is included in clean installs of Windows 10 as well as upgrades to Windows 10 from Windows 8.1 or Windows 7. DVD playback isn't included in Windows 10 or Windows 8.1. Go to the DVD playback for Windows page to find out how to add DVD playback.
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.
Is Windows Media Player Free
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
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