Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

Windows Media Player

Jul 13, 2009 1:41AM PDT

I had Windows XP on my computer. Upgraded to Windows Vista and now the Windows Media Player won't play. How can I fix this? I have looked for other versions. Haven't found one yet.

Thanks,
vblanton2@verizon.net

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Codecs?
Jul 13, 2009 2:01AM PDT

If you are dealing with several different formats that won't play, you may want to look into downloading a codec pack. In the past I have used K-Lite codec packs. Anyone else have other codec packs they like?

Here is a safe place to get codecs from: http://download.cnet.com/windows/?tag=hdr;snav

The above suggestion will really only help if it is a missing codec problem. You may also want to provide more details about what "Windows Media Player won't play" means. Error codes? Program crashing?.....

- Collapse -
Personally
Jul 13, 2009 2:51AM PDT

Personally, I'd avoid codec packs. They have a tendency to cause more problems than they're worth, and sometimes they bundle codecs that are of questionable legality.

I prefer something nice and simple like FFDShow, which is kind of a one stop codec pack. It's an added benefit that since it's full of a lot of hand written code to make use of CPU instruction sets like MMX and SSE2 to help make it as efficient as possible. Sometimes more so than official codecs decoders.

You can either install FFDShow and take your chances with the rather insecure (as media players go) Windows Media Player, or use something like MediaPlayer Classic or VLC Player.

- Collapse -
Fixed
Jul 15, 2009 2:30AM PDT

I went in to the website I was trying to use the player on and went to their page setting and changed the setting to automatic restart after ad. It was off. And now it works.