Windows Media Player is a built-in multimedia player that comes with Windows. While it is a reliable and widely used application, users may encounter errors and issues from time to time. This article aims to provide guidance on troubleshooting common Windows Media Player errors.

Codecs in Media Player. Windows 11 Windows 10. Codecs allow you to play different formats of audio and video files. Media Player supports a wide variety of codecs. Most are included out of the box; some additional codecs can be installed from the Microsoft Store.

Windows Media Player 12: Video codecs. To properly play video (and even music files), Windows Media Player required an appropriate codec. Codecs are small programs that encode digital signals in a file or data and decode. Only in this way, the player can interpret the streams as a music or film and play correctly.

Fixes a playback issue that occurs after you set the ThreadPriority registry key entry to raise the video or audio thread priority on a Windows Embedded Compact 7-based device.

Download Windows Media Player. Get Windows Media Player for your version of Windows, or learn how to play Windows Media files on your Mac. Get the details here. Get help. Find help and how-to information for your version of Windows Media Player. Learn about the features and how to fix problems.

A codec compresses or decompresses media files such as songs or videos. Windows Media Player and other apps use codecs to play and create media files. A codec can consist of two parts: an encoder that compresses the media file (encoding) and a decoder that decompresses the file (decoding).

Windows Media Player 12—available as part of Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10*—plays more music and video than ever, including Flip Video and unprotected songs from your iTunes library!

Windows Media player should now be reinstalled. Note: To troubleshoot issues like playback and codec problems, see the "Get help" section in Windows Media Player. Learn how to get Windows Media Player 12 for Windows 10, Windows 8.1, and Windows 7.

This article lists the multimedia file types that are supported by Windows Media Player 12. (How to determine your version of Windows Media Player). Note: Additional file formats might be supported if you install new codecs in Windows. For more information, see Codecs: frequently asked questions.

The Movies & TV app in Windows 10 supports most Digital Rights Management (DRM)-free videos, including the following formats: For a detailed table of supported codecs for each format, see Supported audio and video formats.