Windows Essentials Codec Pack

The Windows codec market is crowded enough to make it hard on you to pick a favorite. In fact, it’s difficult to choose the one that’s the most efficient, as all of them claim to benefit from the greatest features, although some do nothing than to slow down the operating system and lead to poor quality when it comes to audio or video files.

Windows Essentials Codec Pack or WECP for short includes a rich collection of video and audio codecs, filters and splitters ready to prepare your computer for any media format. Just like its name suggests, this suite is actually a pack of the essential codecs you need to play audio and video files on a Windows computer.

The installation process however comprises a toolbar that the software does not need to function properly and attempts to change the homepage and the default search engine for the web browsers installed on your computer. However, you can decline the offer if you don't want any third party components on your system.

With Windows Essentials Codec Pack on your system, you are prepared to play audio CDs, DVDs, (S)VCDs and XCDs, as well as any of the following file types: 3GP, AAC, AC3, APE, AVI, DivX, 3ivx, DAT, h.264, x264, AVC, DTS, Nero Digital, FLV, FLAC, HD-MOV, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPC, M4A, MP3, MP4, MO3, MOD, MKV/MKA, MTM, OFR, TTA, OGG/OGM, S3M, Vorbis, VOB, WavPack, ATRAC3, XviD, XM, WV and UMX, to name the most important ones.

Windows Essentials Codec Pack also installs Media Player Classic, a reliable media player that supports a wide range of audio and video formats.

Developers claim that after installing this pack you should be able to run 99 percent of multimedia files, but as far as we’re concerned, it could go as high as 100 percent. During our testing, everything worked like a breeze and we could open every multimedia file we had on our computers.

Windows Essentials Codec Pack indeed includes the essential tools you need to open multimedia files, so if you’re in search for a powerful codec solution, be sure to write down this one on your list, managing to do everything but disappoint you.