Windows Media Player

Windows Media Player
	Windows Media Player 12 running on Windows 11
Developer(s)	Microsoft
Stable release	12.0.22621.457 (September 20, 2022) [±]
Preview release	12.0.25120.1000 (May 18, 2022) [±]
Operating system	Windows NT 4.0; Mac OS 7; Mac OS X; Solaris;
Included with	Windows 3.0 MM and Windows 3.1; Windows 9x; Windows 2000, Windows ME, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Windows 11; Windows CE and Windows Mobile; Mac OS 8 and 9;
Predecessor	ActiveMovie Control, CD Player, DVD Player, NetShow
Successor	Groove Music, Microsoft Movies & TV, Media Player (2022)
Type	Media player
Website	support.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/windows-media-player-d10303a5-896c-2ce2-53d4-5bd5b9fd888b

Windows Media Player (WMP), currently known as Windows Media Player Legacy since 2022 to distinguish it from the new UWP-based Media Player introduced in Windows 11, is the first media player and media library application that Microsoft developed to play audio and video on personal computers. It has been a component of the Microsoft Windows operating system, including Windows 9x, Windows NT, Pocket PC, and Windows Mobile. Microsoft also released editions of Windows Media Player for classic Mac OS, Mac OS X, and Solaris, but has since discontinued them.

In addition to being a media player, the software has the ability to rip audio file from and copy to compact discs, burn recordable discs in Audio CD format or as data discs with playlists such as an MP3 CD, synchronize content with a digital audio player (MP3 player) or other mobile devices, play and stream media over the local network, and enable users to purchase or rent music from a number of online music stores. The default file formats are Windows Media Video (WMV), Windows Media Audio (WMA), and Advanced Systems Format (ASF), and its own XML based playlist format called Windows Playlist (WPL). The player is also able to utilize a digital rights management service in the form of Windows Media DRM.

Windows Media Player is a unique component, in that since 1999, each version of Windows came with two or more versions of it side-by-side. For example Media Player versions 5.1, 6.4, and 8 were all included in Windows XP. These versions of Windows also included several other media playback apps, namely ActiveMovie Control, CD Player, DVD Player, Windows Media Center, and Microsoft Movies & TV.

Windows Media Player 11 is the last out-of-band version of Media Player. It was made available for Windows XP and is included in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. Version 12 was released in 2009 along with Windows 7 and has not been made available for previous versions of Windows nor has it been updated ever since. Windows 8 bundled Windows Media Player 12 along two other media player apps, namely Xbox Video and Xbox Music. The latter was renamed Groove Music in Windows 10, and then finally Media Player in Windows 11, which has since been backported to Windows 10.

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