Learn Vista - Playing Music or Video Using Windows Media Player 11

You can use Windows Media Player (WMP) 11 to play audio and video file from harddisk or even from internet (streaming).

Play a File From Certain Folder On Harddisk

If you want to play a music/video file not listed in library, then please do these steps:

1. Right-click an empty area on toolbar, then click File, and then click Open. (Or you can use this shortcut: CTRL + O ). Or if the classic menus are visible, you can click directly from the menus (File > Open).

2. On the Open File window, locate and click a music/video file you'd like to play. And then click Open button. Now, just relax on your chair while listening music / watching video.


Play a File From Windows Media Player Library

To play a file from your WMP library, activate (click) the Library tab. Then on the left pane, browse and search your file from the Playlist, Now Playing, or Library item. Then double-click a file from the file list to play it.

Play a File From Internet

1. To play a file from internet, first you have to browse/search from the internet browser (such as Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, etc) and copy the link/address/url of the music/video file.

2. After you get the file url, now run Windows Media Player.

3. Press CTRL + U. (Or right-click an empty area on toolbar, then click File, and then click Open URL ).

4. On the Open URL window, paste the url into the Open textbox. And then click OK button. Now, you must be watching/listening the file.

You must have fast internet connection to be able to play internet music/video smoothly.


Playing a CD or DVD

Casually, the disk will automatically start playing after you insert it into the drive. But, if not, you can do these steps:

1. Inset the CD/DVD into the drive. A while after that, the AutoPlay window appears. Click Play Video CD using Windows Media Player if you use a CD or click Play DVD Movie using Windows Media Player if you are using DVD. And then it starts playing.

2. On Windows Media Player, you can also play a specific file/title/segment/chapter by double-clicking it from the List pane.