Media Player

Preferring to keep your web browser strictly for navigation might also mean music, and clips are played offline, and with dedicated applications. Not to be confused with the tool Windows puts at your disposal, Media Player comes with the means to play multiple types of audio, and video files in a clean environment.

In order to properly function, you need to make sure that .NET Framework is installed on your computer. What’s more, the application also relies on Windows Media Player for some controls, and options, so it’s best to check whether it’s configured, or stable.

To start off, the application’s file support can leave more to be desired, and you might end up only capable of enjoying only a small number of different video, or audio file formats. What’s more, these aren’t specified in the open dialog, so you need to try your luck with files you want to play anyway.

There’s a playlist where you can load more items, and this is done by selecting a source folder. Sadly, you can’t drop it over the dedicated section, and neither can you import existing playlist files. What’s more, there’s no built-in option to save the list of songs and videos to file, so you always need to have a folder ready, if the application tickles your fancy.

Playback controls speak for themselves, with buttons to start, stop, or scroll through content, as well as adjust volume by adding, or subtracting. You can switch to a full control list, which bring up the Windows Media Player control bar, being a lot more handy than default options.

In case you want to play media from a disk, a dedicated option can quickly pop the tray out. Dedicated DVD menu and controls can also be brought up.

All things considered, we can safely state that Media Player might not exactly be your gateway to a comfortable multimedia experience. Playlists you create can’t be saved, nor loaded from existing files, while the general look, and feel can quickly make you look for alternatives, especially since it relies on, but doesn’t surpass the media player already built into Windows.