Play music and video in more formats and stream it to more places with Windows Media Player 12.

Enable Windows 10 programs such as Windows Media Player to support activities that include the playback and recording of multimedia files that are encoded with standards-based codecs.

Video, photo, and audio FAQ for Xbox Media Player app Find answers to commonly asked questions about video, photo, and audio content using the Media Player app on your Xbox console.

Learn how to troubleshoot Windows Media Player errors. Explore resources for general help with Windows Media Player.

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.

Discusses the cause and resolution of error 80040265 in Windows Media Player. This error is caused by an unsupported file format or codec or by corrupted Windows Media Player files.

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.

In some cases, the error message in Windows Media Player will provide information about the codec file that is required. The error message might also provide a link that you can click to download the codec file.

Play MP4 files in Windows by right-clicking the file and choosing what application to open it with.

This article lists the multimedia file types that are supported by different versions of Windows Media Player.