Microsoft has been accused of many things, but no one has ever called it a charity, so you may wonder why it has spent time and money developing the latest version of its free Windows Media Player (WMP). Or rather, the cynics among you may wonder if Microsoft has used up all of its good ideas in the previous nine versions, and all that’s left for version 10 are a few new skins and visualisations. For starters, version 10 cleans up the appalling interface that was introduced with WMP 9. It looks as though the development team sat down and looked at competing software from a number of other companies, in particular Apple’s iTunes, to see what works and what is less effective. Happily, that process led it to dumping the overly complicated interface that was introduced with WMP 9.

VERSATILE FORMAT

Moving to a cleaner interface is easier said than done as WMP handles both audio and visual media, compared with most players, which play either music or movies. There’s a great deal of functionality in WMP 10, and Microsoft is to be commended for making it easier to use than previous versions.

Unexpectedly, one of the most intriguing aspects of WMP 10 are the system requirements. You have to run one of the versions of Windows XP to install WMP 10, although that does include Media Centre Edition and Tablet PC. Of course, XP has native CD writing, but otherwise we can’t see why Windows 2000 users have been left out in the cold unless you consider that WMP 10 is in part a tool to drive users to upgrade to Windows XP. Once you get over that hurdle, Microsoft lists a required system specification and a recommended spec, and the two have a massive gap between them.

You need, at least, a 233MHz processor, however, 1.5GHz is preferred. Similarly, 64MB of memory will do, but 512MB is better. You must have 100MB of hard disc space available, but Microsoft would prefer 60GB of space, and while you’re at it a DirectX 9.0 graphics chip with 256MB of memory will also enhance your media experience.

You can play back an audio CD on the most basic laptop and CD writing isn’t too demanding, so you may wonder how WMP 10 could possibly use all of those resources. The answer lies in WMP 10’s support for a whole host of portable media players ranging from flash memory music players, such as the BenQ Joybee through to hard drive players such as the Creative Jukebox, and let’s not forget the new Windows Mobile-based Portable Media Center (PMC). These are the new devices from the likes of Creative and iRiver that can store music, pictures and movies.

When you install WMP 10 it trawls through your hard disc to organise all of your media into a Media Library. Connecting a portable player to your WMP 10 laptop will start an Auto Sync process with WMP 10 identifying whether your player is audio only or video too, and how much storage capacity it has. If your player only has 128MB of space, then you’ll have to select the music files that you want to transfer across, but if WMP 10 detects a player with a hard disc then it will use its initiative.

The latest versions of Microsoft’s WMA (Windows Media Audio) and WMV (Windows Media Video) codecs are so efficient that you’ll be able to squeeze thousands of audio tracks and hours of movie and TV recordings onto the latest portable players.

Should you need to top up your Media Library you can use WMP 10 to connect to a selection of online music stores. At the time of writing, there are no stores available in the UK using WMP 10 (certainly not Napster or iTunes), but Microsoft is due to launch its MSN music store very soon, so no doubt that situation will be rectified.

WMP 10 is a distinct improvement over previous versions of the Microsoft software, but it’s not perfect. As it is effectively free of charge to the end user there’s no way that you’re going to get DVD or Dolby decoding as part of the package, as that would require Microsoft to pay a licence fee on your behalf.

Secondly, if you have an Apple iPod, a Sony ATTRAC player or you want to watch Quicktime or Real movies, then you’ll need to install the appropriate software, so Windows Media Player is unlikely to be the only media software that you’ll ever need.

PRICE FREE
RATING 8
KEY FEATURES Improved Windows Media Player with support for portable players
OS COMPATIBILITY All versions of Windows XP
CONTACT
0870 601 0100
www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/mp10