If you use Windows Media Player 11 and you get a message such as, “An internal application error has occurred”, the application doesn’t start or some elements of the application is blank and doesn’t show anything, there may be a fix for you. The problem is, is that some components are not fully registered with the system and so re-registering them should fix it.

1. Click Start, click Run, type regsvr32 jscript.dll, and then click OK.
2. Click Start, click Run, type regsvr32 vbscript.dll, and then click OK.

Windows Media Player does a good job of automatically finding images to fill as your album art when in the library view. However, sometimes it doesn’t work and can’t find it. But if you can find the album art cover on the Internet, you can easily paste it into the library item and it’ll stay there.

1. Go to Start , All Programs, then Windows Media Player.
2. In the Library tab, find a song or a track from an album which doesn’t have album art, and just has an image saying “Paste Art Here”.
3. Search the web for an image which you find acceptable to place as the album art.
4. Right click the image, select Copy.
5. Go back into Windows Media Player, right click the blank album art, and select Paste Album Art.

Windows Media Player takes on a lot of music, video and picture files automatically in Vista, so all you do is open a file and Windows Media Player opens it. However if you have other programs for other things, you can set what Windows Media Player actually opens and what it doesn’t. To do this:

1. Go to Start , All Programs, then Windows Media Player.
2. Click on the Alt key to display the menu, Tools then Options.
3. In the File Types tab, select all the different types of media you wish Windows Media Player to open.
   (We recommend you keep checked asf, wma, wmv, avi and dvr-ms)
4. Apply then OK.

Video and some music files need to be “converted” before they are played back, and this is what a codec does. It converts a file from a certain type into a readable format so it can be heard or watched. Some codecs are required to watch and listen to certain media, and when one is needed it is downloaded from the web. You can enable this to download automatically; to do this:

1. Go to Start , All Programs, then Windows Media Player.
2. Click on the Alt key to display the menu, Tools then Options.
3. In the Player tab, ensure the “Download codecs automatically” box is checked.
4. Apply then OK.

Enabling media sharing lets you share your music, pictures and videos with other computers and users in the same house or the same network as you. To enable media sharing:

1. Go to Start , All Programs, then Windows Media Player.
2. Click on the Library tab, then select Media Sharing from the menu.
3. Check the “Share my media” button, then press OK. (This might take a few seconds to complete as it modifies firewall settings.)

If you have a high definition audio device in your computer (most onboard audio solutions are now high definition, or HD), then you should have the ability to use Audio Enhancements. However, if you are not planning on using these enhancements then it is recommended that you disable them completely.

1. Right click on the sound icon in the notification area and from the context menu that appears click on “Playback Devices”.
2. Select your output device (most commonly labelled “Speakers”), right click on it, and then click on Properties.
3. Click on the Enhancements tab.
4. Tick/check “Disable all enhancements”.
5. Press OK to dismiss the dialog.

Big thanks to Kristan Kenney for the heads-up.

If you’re having trouble getting Windows Movie Maker to work in Vista, there is an update which will benefit users in getting the software to work. Some users experience the message, “Windows Movie Maker cannot start because your video card does not support the required level of hardware acceleration or hardware acceleration is not available.” If this is the case, you can download the update from Microsoft.

If you don’t experience this message or problem, then there is no need to download an update. The update, which will update Windows Movie Maker from the RTM version to 2.6, and can be obtained here.

Source: Bink.nu

You can’t buy Windows Media Center seperately for Vista editions which don’t have it installed. You can only get Windows Media Center in Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate Editions.

A Media Center Extender is a bridge between your Windows Media Center device and the rest of the devices in your home, such as in other rooms and speakers, including games consoles like the Xbox 360. Using your computer as a Media Center Extender, you can have the functionality of Windows Media Center in other rooms in your house.

By having your computer as a Media Center Extender, you can:

1. Listen to music in other rooms and on other devices in your house.
2. Look at photos in other rooms and on other devices in your house.
3. Watch videos and DVD’s in other rooms and on other devices in your house.
4. Watch or record television in other rooms and on other devices in your house.
5. Listen to radio from over-the-air or via broadband in other rooms and on other devices in your house.

For all this, generally you need a networked TV or DVD player which can communicate with your Windows Media Center computer. Your Xbox 360 can act as a Media Center Extender also if you have one, and a wired or a wireless network in your house so the devices can communicate with each other.

You have two options - Internet Radio in Windows Media Player 11, or actual FM radio in Windows Media Center.

• Listen to radio online using Windows Media Player 11 now.

You need a TV-tuner in order to listen to radio or watch television on your computer, and these can cost from $20 to $100 depending on where you are. It will enable you to listen to FM radio nationally and locally from 86FM to 107FM and other bands (depending on hardware).

1. Go to Start, All Programs, then click on Windows Media Center.
2. Select Music, then scroll across to Radio then click on it.
3. If you know the number for the station, enter it into your keypad then press Enter.
4. If you don’t know the number for the station, select the + and - under Seek and Tune to find your station.

You can also search for Internet radio stations using Windows Media Center. To do this:

1. Go to the start screen by selecting the button within Windows Media Center.
2. Scroll to Online Media, then click on Program Library.
3. Click on Music and Radio, and then continue to click on More Music and Radio to see a list of radio stations available.
4. Click on the station you want to listen to, and it’ll begin streaming through your Windows Media Center display.

It’s really simple. You don’t need to attach your computer to your television or any other devices, but what you will need is a TV-tuner card which needs to be bought and installed manually into your computer. If you already have one, then you can proceed to watching television.

To watch television in Windows Media Center:

1. Go to Start, All Programs, then click on Windows Media Center.
2. Wait until Windows Media Center loads up.
3. Scroll to TV at the main menu and you should be set up fine.

Note: if you get a warning regarding a TV-tuner card, you may not have one installed and you’ll need to buy one seperately.

In Windows XP SP2, Internet Explorer shows Windows Media Player in black. In Windows Vista, Internet Explorer shows Windows Media Player in white. There is no change in functionality or productivity - they are just different colours for different operating systems.

To save space in Windows Media Player 11, it is designed in an ergonomic design with tabs across the top. These are Now Playing, Library, Rip, Burn, Sync and Media Guide. You can change which tab opens each time you open Windows Media Player.

To do this, create a shortcut on your desktop (or in a file menu) by right clicking, select New then Shortcut. Depending on which tab you want, select from the following:

• Now Playing tab           wmplayer.exe /Task:NowPlaying
• Library tab                  wmplayer.exe /Task:Library
• Media Guide tab          wmplayer.exe /Task:MediaGuide

Continue the wizard until it finishes, then every time you select that shortcut then it’ll open that specified tab.

You can easily shrink Windows Media Player to a much smaller, compact size. In your full screen menu, at the bottom right hand side of the controls, select the button where the red arrow is pointing to below.

This will automatically switch the application to a smaller, easier to handle, less intrusive and compact.

Because Windows Vista is still a beta product, not all the wallpapers, sounds and other graphics are not quite in place yet. Say for example the sounds and the wallpapers - we have some very simple basic wallpapers of which will satisfy the beta tester for the time being, until a public beta is available then a lot more wallpapers will be released. In the latest build, 5342, there are some wallpapers there which literally say “placeholder” and the file name of that wallpaper as the image - these are only here because they will be replaced at a later date when the more important bits of the operating system are finished.

At the moment, we see the same with sounds. Because the sounds of Vista haven’t been woven into the operating system, we still here Windows XP sounds. However, this is very much expected to change by the time that Vista becomes a public beta preview in April/May 2006.

Updated for Windows Vista 5365 and above
These placeholders have been filled! That’s right - the pictures have been filled and all the wallpapers have been added to the system. Beta 2 is now graphically complete, however we may see some more wallpapers being added in the near future.

The new interface of Windows Media Player 11 lets you do a lot more with the media player, but what they’ve seemed to have kept hidden from us for a while are the cool little nifty tricks you can do using keyboard shortcuts. These work on Windows Media Player 11 for Windows Vista and Windows XP.

To slow down playback: Ctrl+Shift+S
To speed up playback: Ctrl+Shift+G
To return to 1x speed: Ctrl+Shift+N
To see more speed settings: Right click the Play/Pause button