Misplaced Pages

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91-692: It consisted of two components: an installable component called WGA Notifications that hooks into Winlogon and validates the Windows license upon each logon and an ActiveX control that checks the validity of the Windows license when downloading certain updates from the Microsoft Download Center or Windows Update . WGA Notifications covered Windows XP and later, with the exception of Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP Professional x64 Edition . The ActiveX Control checked Windows 2000 Professional licenses as well. In Windows 7 , WGA

182-687: A music streaming service to a media player . Other changes include the album cover view being in fullscreen, and a refresh to the mini player. Accessibility has also been optimized, with some improved keyboard shortcuts and hotkey support for keyboard users and with other assistive technologies. Windows Media Player supports playback of audio, video and pictures, along with fast forward, reverse, file markers (if present) and variable playback speed (seek & time compression/dilation introduced in WMP 9 Series). It supports local playback, streaming playback with multicast streams and progressive downloads. Items in

273-573: A 10-band graphic equalizer with presets and SRS WOW audio post-processing system. Windows Media Player can also have attached audio and video DSP plug-ins which process the output audio or video data. Video Smoothing was introduced in WMP 9 Series ( Windows XP and later only) which upscales frame-rate by interpolating added frames, in effect giving a smoother playback on low-framerate videos. The player supports subtitles and closed-captioning for local media, video on demand streaming or live streaming scenarios. Typically Windows Media captions support

364-569: A WGA failure occurred, incorrectly flagging some systems as being non-genuine. On August 25, 2007, the Microsoft WGA servers suffered an outage, resulting in many legitimate copies of Windows XP and Vista being marked as counterfeit. The issue was solved about 12 hours later. According to Microsoft, "fewer than 12,000 systems were affected worldwide." On July 18, 2008, reports of Microsoft's WGA and OGA servers being offline surfaced again. Microsoft later responded that only offline verification

455-517: A black desktop, as Microsoft introduced its WGA system for Chinese language systems in an effort to combat copyright violation, which is extremely common in China. Since the majority of users in China run unlicensed copies of Windows, many users have experienced what is described as a "black screen syndrome", where the operating system changes the desktop background to a black screen, as well as displays constant warning messages. Some users have even reported

546-581: A built-in component of Windows 2000 , Windows Me , and Windows XP with an mplayer2.exe stub allowing to use this built-in instead of newer versions. Windows Media Player 7.0 and its successors also came in the same fashion, replacing each other but leaving Media Player and Windows Media Player 6.4 intact. Windows XP is the only operating system to have three different versions of Windows Media Player (v5.1, v6.4, and v8) side by side. All versions branded Windows Media Player (instead of simply Media Player) support DirectShow codecs. Windows Media Player version 7

637-536: A burn list onto multiple discs in case the content does not fit on one disc. Windows Media Player allows the user to connect, share and sync data with portable handheld devices and game consoles since version 7. Media can be optionally transcoded to a format better suited for the target device, automatically, when synchronizing. When deleting playlists from devices, Windows Media Player can automatically remove their contents. Devices can be formatted using Windows Media Player 9 Series and later. Version 10 and later support

728-434: A forum to help users encountering problems. In February 2007, a "Not Sure" section was added to the program, in case of an incorrect reading. According to an Ars Technica editorial, WGA reported around 22% of 500 million Windows computers as failing the test; of these less than 0.5% were due to unauthorized software, with the balance (over 20%, or 90% of all positives) related to edge cases. Microsoft "refused to comment on

819-547: A greater impact. In addition to persistent notification and the disabling of non-critical updates, WGA also disables Windows Aero , Windows Defender and ReadyBoost . The user is given a grace period in which to then pass validation, after which most of the operating system is disabled and Windows reverts to reduced functionality mode . This behavior however has been removed in Service Pack 1 of Windows Vista in favor of prominent notices on systems believed unlicensed. When

910-528: A media player, the app can rip audio file from compact discs , burn Audio CDs or MP3 CDs , synchronize content with a digital audio player or mobile devices, and stream media over the local network. Originally, it could connect to a number of online music stores , allowing its users to purchase digital music. 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

1001-511: A music store switches the Info Center view, radio and other online features to use services from that store. Purchased music from a particular store appears in a separate library node under the respective category. Previously, Microsoft had released Windows Media Connect for Windows XP to stream media content with its built-in UPnP media server. With version 11 of Windows Media Player, Media Sharing

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1092-583: A new way of dealing with media files, and adds support for streaming media (which the original Media Player could not handle). In 1996, ActiveMovie was renamed DirectShow . However, Media Player continued to come with Windows until Windows XP, in which it was officially renamed Windows Media Player v5.1. ("v5.1" is the version number of Windows XP). In 1999, Windows Media Player's versioning broke away from that of Windows itself. Windows Media Player 6.4 came as an out-of-band update for Windows 95 - 98 and Windows NT 4.0 that co-existed with Media Player and became

1183-558: A non-genuine version of Windows why their Windows version isn't being reported as genuine. However, unlike previous releases, it started being only automatically delivered to Windows machines using four widely distributed product keys. The latest update (version 1.9.0040.0) was released on March 24, 2009. Microsoft includes the Windows Genuine Advantage Validation Library in several products, such as Windows validation tool or Windows Media Player 11 , to check

1274-506: A playlist can be skipped over temporarily at playback time without removing them from the playlist. Full keyboard-based operation is possible in the player. Windows Media Player supports full media management, via the integrated media library introduced first in version 7, which offers cataloguing and searching of media and viewing media metadata. Media can be arranged according to album, artist, genre, date et al. Windows Media Player 9 Series introduced Quick Access Panel to browse and navigate

1365-466: A product has not been considered genuine which has made some people compare WGA to time bomb software . Windows Vista SP1 and SP2 have removed this behavior and reverted to the nag-only methods of Windows XP. The notification tool has been accused of spyware -like behavior, " phoning home " on a daily basis. Microsoft subsequently admitted the behaviour, but denied that it amounted to spyware. Following pressure, Microsoft announced that in future

1456-468: A requirement for use of the Windows Update and Microsoft Update websites, in part to be sure that customers who use support resources of the company are aware when their software is unlicensed. According to Microsoft themselves, it is legal to run Microsoft Windows without Windows Genuine Advantage . However, since non-critical Windows updates are not presented by Automatic Updates, installation of WGA

1547-534: A shell player powertoy for Windows Media Player 8 in Windows XP and integrated later into WMP 9 Series. Mini-mode has been removed in Windows Media Player 12 in favor of controls in the taskbar's interactive thumbnail preview which lacks volume control, a progress bar and information displayed whenever a new song is played. Despite this, however, Mini-mode can be restored in Windows Media Player 12 by registering

1638-605: A specific category or folder. The pile appears larger as the category contains more albums. The List pane includes an option to prompt the user to remove items skipped in a playlist upon save or skip them only during playback. While playing music, Windows Media Player can show visualizations . The current three visualizations are Alchemy , which was first introduced in version 9, Bars and Waves , which has been used since version 7, and Battery , introduced version 8. Versions 7 and 8 included with Me and XP respectively includes an additional visualization called "Musical Colors", which

1729-464: A stand-alone program to generate a key or an ActiveX control to discover whether the license key is valid; either way, an Internet connection is required. On Windows XP, if WGA determines that a user's copy of Windows is unauthorized , but was installed from seemingly legitimate media (i.e., the CD / DVD and holographic emblem present on real copies of Windows seems genuine), then Microsoft will supply

1820-528: A user installs Windows Genuine Advantage, an Internet Explorer add-on is installed labeled "Windows Genuine Advantage". In early releases the tool could be readily disabled with the IE Add-on Management feature. A Windows Group Policy was added by later updates, causing this option to be unavailable by default, but still accessible if the policy were removed. As of July 2006, the latest update blocks management by other means. The program uses either

1911-541: A user opened a specially crafted media file". Such a file would allow the attacker to "then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights", if the account on which the file was played had administrator privileges. The problem was addressed in a critical update issued on September 8, 2009. Microsoft has also released versions of Windows Media Player for other platforms including Windows Mobile , classic Mac OS , Mac OS X , Palm-size PC , Handheld PC , and Solaris . Of these, only

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2002-553: Is a common target for several threats that could modify its function and memory usage. Winlogon has support for plugins that get loaded and notified about specific events. Some rootkits bundle Winlogon plugins because they are loaded before any user logs in. Some registry keys allow multiple values to be supplied that allow a malicious program to be executed at the same time as a legitimate system file. Windows Media Player Windows Media Player ( WMP , officially referred to as Windows Media Player Legacy to distinguish it from

2093-535: 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 . Each versions of Windows may bundle several other media playback apps, namely ActiveMovie Control , CD Player , DVD Player , Windows Media Center , and Microsoft Movies & TV . Windows Media Player 11

2184-455: Is also visible from the Library view. AutoPlay handlers in Windows expose various Windows Media Player tasks. Up to version 11, it featured a taskbar-mounted Mini-mode in which the most common media control buttons are presented as a toolbar on the Windows taskbar . Flyout windows can display media information, the active visualization or the video being played back. Mini-mode was introduced as

2275-692: Is launched by the Session Manager Subsystem as a part of the booting process of Windows NT . Before Windows Vista, Winlogon was responsible for starting the Service Control Manager and the Local Security Authority Subsystem Service , but since Vista these have been launched by the Windows Startup Application ( wininit.exe ). The first part of the logon process Winlogon conducts is starting

2366-414: Is not available as a download from Microsoft, distribution is done solely through OEM partners, and is typically included on devices based on Windows Mobile. Windows Mobile 6 includes a copy of Windows Media Player 10 Mobile, but with a similar (but not quite identical) theme as Windows Media Player 11. Version 9 was the final version of Windows Media Player to be released for Mac OS X before development

2457-431: Is not present in out-of-band releases of version 7 as well as version 9 onwards, but is retained if Windows Media Player was upgraded from version 7 or 8. Version 11 and above refrains from having the former "Ambience," "Particle," "Plenoptic," and "Spikes" visualizations from versions 7 to 10. The reason for their removal was that the visualizations do not support full screen controls (either the visualization gets shifted to

2548-499: Is present. Audio can be ripped using error correction and ripped audio can be protected with Windows Media DRM . Ripping to MP3 is supported only in Windows Media Player 8 for Windows XP and later if a compatible MP3 encoder is installed. Windows Media Player 10 included the Fraunhofer MP3 Professional encoder. Information on CDs such as album name, artist and track listings can optionally be automatically downloaded from

2639-506: Is required for installation of such non-critical updates, which are only available through Windows Update or the Microsoft Download Center. On April 25, 2006, Microsoft began distributing Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications as "critical update" KB905474 to Windows users. For Windows 7, KB971033 has the same function. Back in 2006, users with copies the WGA believed to be unlicensed were exposed to alerts at startup, login, and during use of

2730-462: Is the highest quality down-conversion bit-rate that can be manually selected when the Sync function's down-conversion function is turned on. Lower bit-rates can also be selected. For portable devices that can handle high bit-rate files, the best quality files are obtained by leaving the down-conversion process switched off (unchecked) for that specific device. In Windows Media Player Version 11, switching off

2821-491: 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

Windows Genuine Advantage - Misplaced Pages Continue

2912-473: Is turned on) to be remotely controlled by Digital Media Controller devices which stream media (Digital Media Renderer role). Similarly, the Play To feature once enabled for remote PCs, by turning on remote control of the player, allows compliant devices and computers to be discovered and controlled remotely from a computer running Windows Media Player 12 (Digital Media Controller role). If the devices do not support

3003-616: The ASF format, lacking support for all other formats such as MP4 , MPEG , and Microsoft's own AVI format. On the user interface front, it did not prevent screensavers from running during playback, it did not support file drag-and-drop, nor did it support playlists. While Windows Media Player 9 had added support for some files that use the WMV9 codec (also known as the WMV3 codec by the FourCC ), in other aspects it

3094-475: The Media Transfer Protocol and Auto Sync. Auto Sync allows users to specify criteria such as recently added music or highest rated songs, by which media will be automatically synchronized with the portable device and other advanced features like setting the clock on the portable device automatically, communicating with the device to retrieve the user's preferences. Windows Media Player 10 also introduced

3185-515: The Now Playing pane and other playlists can be controlled from the Windows Explorer shell itself, via right-click menu. The My Music folder also includes a separate My Playlists folder where playlists are maintained. When the player is closed and reopened, simply clicking the play button restores the last playlist even if it was not saved. Starting with Windows Media Player 10, the playlist pane

3276-476: The Quick Access Panel was removed and replaced with an Explorer-style navigation pane on the left which can be customized for each library to show the user selected media or metadata categories, with contents appearing on the right, in a graphical manner with thumbnails featuring album art or other art depicting the item. Missing album art can be added directly to the placeholders in the Library itself (though

3367-992: The SAMI file format but can also carry embedded closed caption data. The player can use video overlays or VMR (Video Mixing Renderer) surfaces, if the video card supports them. In Windows XP , it uses VMR7 by default, but can also be made to use the more advanced YUV mixing mode by enabling the "Use high quality mode" option in Advanced Performance settings. This turns on deinterlacing, scaling and improved color accuracy. WMP 9 Series introduced native playback for deinterlacing for TV output. Version 9 introduced DXVA accelerated playback. Version 11 introduced improved support for DirectX accelerated decoding of WMV video ( DXVA decoding). Up to version 11, it supported static lyrics and "Synchronized Lyrics,” by which different lines of lyrics can be time-stamped, so that they display only at those times. Synchronized Lyrics also were accessible through

3458-609: The UMDF -based Windows Portable Devices API. Version 11 has improved synchronization features for loading content onto PlaysForSure -compatible portable players. WMP 11 supports reverse-synchronization, by which media present on the portable device can be replicated back to the PC. Shuffle Sync can be used to randomize content synced with the portable device, Multi PC Sync to synchronize portable device content across multiple PCs and Guest Sync to synchronize different content from multiple PCs with

3549-609: The WebM file type is not officially associated with Windows Media Player 12 (the default player is Microsoft Movies & TV ), playback of VP9 video in WebM container is possible on Windows 10 version 1809 and later. Windows Media Player Mobile 10 on Windows Mobile 6.5 supports MP3 , ASF , WMA , and WMV using WMV or MPEG-4 codecs. Windows Media Player features integrated Audio CD -burning support since version 7 as well as data CD burning support since Windows Media Player 9 Series on Windows XP and later. Data CDs can have any of

3640-533: The Advanced Tag Editor which was removed in version 12. Since Windows Media Player 9 Series, the player supports crossfading, audio dynamic range (Quiet Mode) for WMA Pro and WMA Lossless, and auto volume leveling for certain media which includes volume level/gain information such as MP3 or Windows Media. The player also supports extensive configurable privacy and security settings. The player has Windows Explorer shell integration to add files and playlist to

3731-695: The WMP Goodies site. The player includes intrinsic support for Windows Media codecs and also WAV and MP3 media formats. On Windows XP and above with WMP 9 Series and later, the Windows Media Audio Professional codec is included which supports multichannel audio at up to 24-bit 192 kHz resolution. Windows Media Player 11 includes the Windows Media Format 11 runtime which adds low bitrate support (below 128 kbit/s for WMA Pro ), support for ripping music to WMA Pro 10 and updates

Windows Genuine Advantage - Misplaced Pages Continue

3822-603: The Windows Mobile edition continues to be actively developed and supported by Microsoft. Version 1 of the Zune software was also based on Windows Media Player; later versions are not. Windows Media Player for Pocket PC was first announced on January 6, 2000, and has been revised on a schedule roughly similar to that of the Windows version. Currently known as "Media Player 10 Mobile,” this edition (released in October 2004) closely resembles

3913-485: The Windows OS, stating that they do not have a genuine copy of Windows. Users with legitimate copies are not supposed to see the alerts (although some do anyway). On May 23, 2006, Microsoft updated the program, closing some forms of circumvention, but reportedly not all. It was updated again on May 30, June 6 and June 27, 2006, though some forms of circumvention are still usable. The latest versions do not roll out worldwide at

4004-671: The Winlogon desktop to the Default desktop when the shell indicates that it is ready to display something for the user, or after thirty seconds, whichever comes first. The system switches back to the Winlogon desktop if the user presses Control-Alt-Delete or when a User Account Control prompt is shown. Winlogon now starts the program specified in the Userinit value which defaults to userinit.exe . This value supports multiple executables. Winlogon

4095-428: The ability to play digital video files in an AVI container format , with codec support for RLE and Video1 , and support for playing uncompressed files. Indeo 3.2 was added in a later release. Video for Windows was first available as a free add-on to Windows 3.1 , and later integrated into Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0 . In 1995, Microsoft released ActiveMovie with DirectX Media SDK. ActiveMovie incorporates

4186-582: The capabilities of the Windows version of WMP 10, including playlist capabilities, a media library, album art, WMA Lossless playback, support for DRM-protected media, video playback at 640×480 with stereo sound, and the same Energy Blue interface aesthetics also seen in Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. It also supports synchronization with the desktop version of WMP 10, and additionally supports synchronizing and transcoding of recorded television shows from Media Center. Media Player 10 Mobile

4277-479: The decoders were subsequently removed in Windows 8 and Windows 10 due to licensing costs. Windows Media Player 12 adds native support for H.264 and MPEG-4 Part 2 video formats, ALAC , AAC audio and 3GP , MP4 and MOV container formats. Windows Media Player 12 is also able to play AVCHD formats ( . M2TS and .mts ). As of Windows 10 , Windows Media Player 12 can play FLAC , HEVC , and SubRip subtitle, and Matroska container formats. Although

4368-630: The disabling of Office programs such as Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Outlook. According to various polls carried out by Chinese portals such as Sohu.com, QQ.com, 21cn.com, and many others, a large number (over 60% of those surveyed) of Chinese Internet users are hostile to Microsoft Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) and Office Genuine Advantage (OGA). Even if WGA does not really make the operating system unusable, no updates except critical ones can be downloaded from Microsoft. Rather than just disallowing updating, Windows Vista originally ran in reduced-functionality mode if found by WGA to be compromised if

4459-508: The down conversion process can be omitted. In versions 11 (2006) and 12 (2009), the Quality settings that the user has selected in the Windows Media Player settings for Sync, for that specific portable device, are used to control the quality (bit-rate) of files that are copied to the portable device. Leaving the Quality settings to Automatic will often result in 192kbs files being copied to the portable device. Manual settings can also be made. 192kbs

4550-893: The down-conversion function is done in the Quality tab of the Advanced Options of the Sync settings for the device. In Windows Media Player Version 12, switching off the down-conversion function is done in the Quality tab of the Properties for the device in the Select Settings for the device in the Sync Options menu. When set up in such a way, Windows Media Player's 'Sync' function can be used to sync unchanged high bit-rate song files to suitable portable devices (i.e. those capable of using file formats such as WMA Lossless, mp3-360kbs, etc.). For example, some users have created large song libraries on their PCs containing .wma formatted song files using

4641-427: The entire library through a menu. The Quick Access Panel was also added to the mini-mode in version 10 but was entirely removed in version 11. WMP 9 Series also introduced ratings and Auto Ratings. Windows Media Player 10 introduced support for aggregating pictures, Recorded TV shows, and other media into the library. A fully featured tag editor was featured in versions 9-11 of WMP, called the Advanced Tag Editor. However,

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4732-512: The feature was removed in Windows Media Player 12. Since WMP 9 Series, the player features dynamically updated Auto Playlists based on criteria. Auto Playlists are updated every time users open them. WMP 9 Series and later also supports Auto Ratings which automatically assigns ratings based on the number of times a song is played. Pre-populated auto playlists are included in Windows Media Player 9 Series. Custom Auto Playlists can be created only on Windows XP and later. In Windows Media Player 11,

4823-771: The files and to ensure that the file sizes were small enough to efficiently fit a reasonably large selection of songs on the portable device. In recent years (circa 2012), portable devices became available that could natively play these Windows Media Player produced high bit-rate WMA-LL files (and others), and that have storage capacities suitable for large collections of high bit-rate song files. This made it much more practicable and desirable to use software programs such as Windows Media Player to synchronize previously PC-bound libraries of high bit-rate songs to these new portable devices. Windows Media Player features universal brightness, contrast, saturation and hue adjustments and pixel aspect ratio for supported video formats. It also includes

4914-408: The high bit-rate WMA Lossless (WMA-LL) protocol, or using other high bit-rate song file formats. The WMA-LL protocol is selectable in Windows Media Player as an option when ripping songs from CDs. The resulting bit-rates seen on ripped WMA-LL files are often 3 to 6 times higher than 192kbs, and can typically fall anywhere in the range of 600kbs to 1200kbs, depending on the quality of the source file that

5005-403: The latter of which is relevant to any attempt to access Microsoft updates via its browser . It includes the following steps: The ActiveX control is downloaded on the first validation and when a new version is available, but the validation itself can be performed any time the user connects to a Microsoft Website to update. On Windows Vista without service packs, WGA validation failure has

5096-517: The left while there is a thick black bar to the right side of the screen, or that there are no full screen controls). More visualizations such as "BlazingColors," "ColorCubes," "PulsingColors," "Softie the Snowman," and "Yule Log" were originally offered as optional extras in version 7 and were later made downloadable from Microsoft's official website, however the downloads have since been taken down. As of today, they can still be found on some websites such as

5187-759: The media formats supported by the player. While burning Data CDs, the media can, optionally, be transcoded into WMA format and playlists can be added to the CD as well. Starting with WMP 9 Series, audio CDs can be burnt with volume leveling. Audio CDs can be ripped as WMA or WMA 10 Pro (WMA 10 Pro in WMP 11 and later) at 48, 64, 96, 128, 160, and 192 kbit/s , WMA lossless (470 to 940 kbit/s) (9 Series on XP and later), WMA variable bitrate (from 40 to 75 kbit/s up to 240-355 kbit/s), MP3 at 128, 192, 256, and 320 kbit/s, or uncompressed WAV (WAV ripping in WMP 11 and later). Since WMP 9 Series, 20 bit high-resolution CDs ( HDCDs ) are also supported, if capable audio hardware

5278-510: The media management functions. It also can preview songs from the library when users hover over the media file and click the Preview button. Windows Media Player 12 can play unprotected songs from the iTunes library. As previously mentioned, taskbar-integrated mini-mode has been replaced with controls in the taskbar's interactive thumbnail preview (called the Thumbnail Toolbar ), albeit minus

5369-522: The message "This version of Windows XP is no longer secure" if users on an XP Operating System are not using Service Pack 3, and it will provide a link to help users to update their systems to the new service pack. The version of Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications released November 29, 2006, had a changed install process to inform the user of what the program does, and can also be set to automatically update to newer versions of Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications. It also informs users that may have

5460-463: The method by which wgatray.exe is started; in the case of Outpost firewall, it is identified as a "hidden process". The wgatray.exe process itself can be firewall blocked, without apparent problems. A tool has been released by a firewall vendor to prevent WGA Notifications transmitting information from one's PC. Through Windows Genuine Advantage, Microsoft collects the following data: On October 20, 2008, many users of Windows XP in China received

5551-560: The new Windows Media Player introduced with 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

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5642-410: The online Windows Media database when the CD is inserted. Version 11 added support for ripping audio CDs to WAV and WMA 10 Pro formats. With their 2015 implementation in Windows 10, Version 12 also added lossless FLAC and ALAC formats for ripping and playback. For burning, version 11 shows a graphical bar indicating how much space will be used on the disc and introduced Disc spanning which splits

5733-459: The original WMA to version 9.2. Support for any media codec and container format can be added using specific DirectShow filters or Media Foundation codecs (Media Foundation codecs only in Windows Vista and later). The player will not play MP3 files that contain compressed ID3 headers ("tags"), trying to do so results in a "The input media file is invalid" error message. MP3 playback support

5824-655: The player did not receive an upgrade. On April 16, 2012, Microsoft announced that Windows Media Player would not be included in Windows RT , the line of Windows designed to run on ARM-based devices. A different app called Media Player is the successor to Groove Music (previously Xbox Music) and Windows Media Player. Media Player started to be offered to all Windows 11 users on February 15, 2022, with Windows 10 users following in January 2023. The new Windows Media Player can also play video, as part of Groove 's rebranding from

5915-529: The player is upgraded. Some skins such as the ones included in previous versions can be downloaded from the Microsoft website, however they have since been removed. It has been archived since 2016 and is currently available. The Corporate skin is not deletable. Microsoft Windows Media Runtime in Windows 2000 , Windows XP , Windows Vista and Windows Server contained a bug that permitted "remote code execution if

6006-586: The portable device. Portable devices appear in the navigation pane of the library where their content can be browsed and searched. Windows Media Player's 'Sync' function has options that allow it to be set to automatically down-convert (transcode) high bit-rate song files to a lower bit-rate. This down-conversion function is switched on by default. This is useful for providing low bit-rate files to those portable devices that need them, and to save space on portable devices with smaller storage capacities. For high bit-rate capable devices with sufficient storage capabilities,

6097-511: The process that shows the user the logon screen. Before Windows Vista this was done by GINA , but starting with Vista this is done by LogonUI. These programs are responsible for getting user credential and passing them to the Local Security Authority Subsystem Service , which authenticates the user. After control is given back to Winlogon, it creates and opens an interactive window station, WinSta0 , and creates three desktops, Winlogon , Default and ScreenSaver . Winlogon switches from

6188-659: The program re-renders all album art imported this way into 1x1 pixel ratio, 200x200 resolution JPEGs ). There are separate Tiles , Icons , Details or Extended Tiles views for Music , Pictures , Video and Recorded TV which can be set individually from the navigation bar. Entries for Pictures and Video show their thumbnails. Version 11 also introduced the ability to search and display results on-the-fly as characters are being entered, without waiting for Enter key to be hit. Incremental search results are refined based on further characters that are typed. Stacking allows graphical representations of how many albums there are in

6279-459: The rate of pure false positives" beyond saying it was "under 1%" (or as stated, at most around 5 million users affected). On June 18, 2007, it surfaced that it is possible to positively validate as a "Genuine Microsoft Product" user (and as a result be able to download certain software from Microsoft 's official website) using Internet Explorer with IEs4Linux and Wine , running on Linux , without having Windows installed. On October 5, 2006,

6370-632: The same time: the dates given are the earliest dates on which the versions appeared, so the actual version being offered in some places will be an earlier version than the latest release. It is still possible to opt out of receiving this update using the "do not show" option at the Windows Update site (Windows XP), and the "Hide" option in the right-click menu of Windows Update in Control Panel (Windows Vista/7/8). In addition to these notifications, Windows Genuine Advantage will also notify users with

6461-424: The streamed format, Windows Media Player 12 transcodes the format on-the-fly. Media from a home network can also be streamed over the internet using an Online ID Provider service, which handles discovery of the computer's IP address, authorization, security, connectivity and Quality of Service issues. Windows Media Player also features skins. Currently, Windows Media Player has two default skins: "Corporate,” which

6552-518: The tool would only phone home once every two weeks, instead of every day. Microsoft has also provided removal instructions for the pilot version of WGA. Despite this, Microsoft was sued under anti-spyware statutes over WGA's non-disclosed "phone home" behaviour. The lawsuit has since been dismissed. The WGA program can produce false positives (incorrectly identifying a genuine copy of Windows as "not genuine"). This can happen for any number of reasons such as failed updates, etc. Microsoft has established

6643-595: The user with a new CD/DVD. However, newer versions of Windows will still require the user to purchase a new copy. Microsoft also offers discounts to people who want to purchase a legitimate copy of Windows but do not have a valid CD. Microsoft has indicated that they will continue to deliver critical security updates through their Automatic Updates service as well as via the Microsoft Download Center, so that all systems, including those that fail to pass validation, will still continue to receive critical security updates. The company has made installation of Windows Genuine Advantage

6734-484: The validation about all Windows software. As of version 7, Internet Explorer no longer requires the user to pass a Windows Genuine Advantage test in order to download or install the software. The WGA Validation Library is also included in the Microsoft Security Essentials 2.0 and validate the Windows installation whether it is legitimate or not. The program will stop working after 30 days once it failed

6825-765: The validation process. The information is then used in the WGA Library to check for overuse of license keys. In September 2005, Microsoft filed lawsuits against a number of companies that sold unauthorized copies of software based on information from users who were told they have copyright infringing software by the Windows Genuine Advantage application. On May 4, 2006, Microsoft announced lawsuits for allegedly distributing unauthorized copies of Windows against eDirectSoftware of Montana, and Chicago-area resellers Nathan Ballog and Easy Computers. Some personal firewalls , though not one embedded in Windows, may alert on

6916-438: The video border color. Color chooser has been removed in WMP 12. It supports visualizations and Info Center View (Info Center View in WMP 9 Series and later) which displays media metadata fetched from the internet. Full screen visualizations are supported in WMP 9 Series and later. It supports Background plug-ins, window plug-ins and Now Playing plug-ins to control media playback besides DSP and renderer plug-ins. Plug-in support

7007-402: The volume control function, track and album information shown whenever a new song is played and the progress bar. The taskbar icon also supports jump lists introduced in Windows 7 . The player has had skinning support since Windows Media Player (WMP) 7 and includes a color chooser since the WMP 9 Series. Not all functions are usually exposed in skin mode. Windows Media Player 10 allows setting

7098-405: The wmpband.dll file from Windows Media Player 11. The user interface has been redesigned in Windows Media Player 12 such that the Now Playing view plays media in a separate minimalist window with floating playback controls, and also gives access to the current playlist, visualizations, and enhancements. Enhancements are housed in individual undocked windows. The library view includes the rest of

7189-477: Was a large revamp, with a new user interface, visualizations and increased functionality. Windows Vista , however, dropped older versions of Windows Media Player in favor of v11, which included the removal of the Windows Media Source Filter (DirectShow codec). In 2004, Microsoft launched digital music store MSN Music for new Windows Media Player 10 to compete with Apple iTunes. However, MSN Music

7280-688: Was built-in beginning with version 6.1 and audio CD playback was natively supported with version 7. DVD playback features minus the necessary decoders were integrated into Windows Media Player 8 for Windows XP . The player activates DVD and Blu-ray playback functionality with support for menus, titles and chapters, parental controls and audio track language selection if compatible decoders are installed. MPEG-2 and Dolby Digital (AC-3) decoders were included beginning with Windows Media Player 11 on Windows Vista (Home Premium and Ultimate editions only) and Windows 7 (Home Premium, Ultimate, or Enterprise editions) to allow DVD playback without additional software. However,

7371-623: Was canceled by Microsoft. It was developed by the Windows Media team at Microsoft instead of the Macintosh Business Unit and released in 2003. On release the application lacked many basic features that were found in other media players such as Apple's iTunes and QuickTime . It also lacked support for many media formats that version 9 of the Windows counterpart supported on release 10 months earlier. The Mac version supported only Windows Media encoded media (up to version 9) enclosed in

7462-408: Was capable of playing .mmm animation files, and could be extended to support other formats. It used MCI to handle media files. Being a component of Windows, Media Player shows the same version number as that of the version Windows with which it was included. Microsoft continually produced new programs to play media files. In November of the following year, Video for Windows was introduced with

7553-511: Was discontinued already in 2006 with the launch of Zune music players. Beginning with Windows Vista , Windows Media Player supports the Media Foundation framework besides DirectShow; as such it plays certain types of media using Media Foundation as well as some types of media using DirectShow. Windows Media Player 12 was released with Windows 7 . It included support for more media formats and added new features. With Windows 8 , however,

7644-662: Was first introduced in version 8, and "Revert,” which first shipped with version 9. In previous versions of Windows Media Player starting with version 7, there were many usual skins offered, some of which were included in various versions of Windows. A non-exhaustive list of skins included with Windows Media Player from versions 7-10 are "9SeriesDefault,” "Atomic,” "Bluesky,” "Canvas,” "Classic,” "Compact,” "goo,” "Headspace,” "heart,” "iconic,” "Miniplayer,” "Optic,” "Pyrite,” "QuickSilver,” "Radio,” "Roundlet,” "Rusty,” "splat,” "Toothy,” "Windows Classic,” and "Windows XP.” All of these skins were removed starting with version 11, but are retained if

7735-400: Was further improved. While previous versions streamed media to UPnP compliant devices (Digital Media Server role) and could play media by fetching it from a network share (Digital Media Player role), Windows Media Player 12 can access media from the shared media libraries on the network or HomeGroup, stream media to DLNA 1.5 compliant devices and allows itself (once the remote control option

7826-481: Was integrated and allows content (Music, Pictures, Video) to be streamed to and from Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) AV enabled devices such as the PS3 , Xbox 360 , and Roku SoundBridge . This includes DRM protected PlaysForSure content. WMP 11 on Windows Vista can also act as a client to connect to remote media libraries using this feature; this is not available on the Windows XP version. With version 12, media streaming

7917-412: Was introduced in WMP 9 Series. The player integrates web-browsing support to browse online music stores, shop for music and tune to internet radio stations since version 7. It provides an embeddable ActiveX control for Internet Explorer so that developers can play Windows Media on web pages. Windows Media Player 10 and later feature integration with a large number of online music stores and selecting

8008-422: Was present on the CD in the first place. The sound quality is much improved over the default rate, although the file size is larger. At the time that Versions 11 and 12 were released, the capabilities and capacities of portable devices typically required down-conversion of the bit-rates of the files placed on the portable devices. Thus, Sync down-conversion was turned on by default. This was to ensure playability of

8099-411: Was renamed Groove Music in Windows 10 , and then finally Media Player in Windows 11 which has also been backported to Windows 10. The first version of Windows Media Player appeared in October 1991, when Windows 3.0 with Multimedia Extensions was released. Originally called Media Player, this component was included with "Multimedia PC"-compatible machines but not available for retail sale. It

8190-548: Was renamed Windows Activation Technologies . Despite its name, it does not actually evaluate the integrity or security of any computer . The WGA validation process validates the present installation of Windows and its license key against the detected computer hardware and determines if the software was licensed from Microsoft. It is accessible by either a stand-alone program, a Netscape-compatible web browser plug-in , or as an ActiveX control within Internet Explorer ,

8281-517: Was temporarily down. Winlogon Winlogon ( Windows Logon ) is the component of Microsoft Windows operating systems that is responsible for handling the secure attention sequence , loading the user profile on logon, creates the desktops for the window station , and optionally locking the computer when a screensaver is running (requiring another authentication step). The roles and responsibilities of Winlogon have changed significantly in Windows Vista and later operating systems. Winlogon

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