Windows Media Player 11 for Vista (discontinued)

Review: this is a note i try to send:
Right now i hate windows for making a simple fix so complicated.i had sound trouble with my media player.so i try to find afix but i guess you windows thinks they are are too good to need one!!.i try to uninstall so i could reinstall but some how you screw that up too. i try to manual uninstall but guesss what!! noo cant do that either!!!! god this ticks me off.i thought i could maybe install media player for xp mmmm almost but nooooooooo cant do that either. so thanks for screwing me around and if i can find a replacement for microsoft i will .
what a waste of good time MY TIME!!!!!!!this is their responds
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Review: This is another product by a big company that is much more interested in benefits to the company rather than benefits to the user. I don't need more digital rights management on my pc, I don't need ads for audible or any other company, and I don't need another program trying to take over all my file and device associations. It is big, bloated, intrusive, and just plain sucks.

Review: You should lower the dosage of whatever medication the Cnet reviewer was on when he said this product was so wonderful in his review.

Review: This program SUCKS.

Review: Don't like it, don't want it, stuck with it for now!

Review: Unfortunately there are no perfect programs when it comes to entertainment software but there are some that are better than others. There are two programs that are at the top of entertainment programs these are Itunes7 and WMP 11. I Use both because I have an Ipod touch and love to use Media Center connected to my T.V when I entertain guest. I prefer to use WMP 11 for several reasons. The why the library is organized is well thought out and easy to use. It is easy to find songs in a well organized library. Unlike iTunes WMP automatically updates the library by watching folders the ability to create playlist is simple but is slightly different from WMP 10. It is not better or worse but different. I prefer the way that the album art is intergraded In WMP 11 then it is in ITunes. When searching through the library by songs the music is organized by Album instead of by file name. This makes it easier to find the music you want when you have a large music collation. The search function is also very quick and responsive. The program also automatically tries to find the correct album information. It also intergrades seamlessly into Media Center.
There are also some down sides . The worst being the Inability to properly correct ID3 tags. These tags are used to by the Library to organize your music and contain data such as song name, artist, and album. So if any of these fields are missing your library will not be properly organized. This is quite common if you download music. You can fix the missing data in two ways. The first way is by searching for album information this is the most automated way but does not always work. The next is by using the advanced tagger and entering the information manually. While it is lacking in the ability to correct this information (ITunes is worse at it) once organized the program is great.

Review: I just bought a Sony Vaio based on CNET reviews (Thanks, CNET!), and while I love the computer, I am less than thrilled with Vista, and particularly Media Player 11.

Not only did the video failed completely in the 1st 2 days I used the player, but there is no support and no way to remove and re-install.

Review: Microsoft's media player upgrades have proven that change does not equal progress. Instead, users are increasingly told what it is that they should like and dictated to how they should use Microsoft's products.

I have been a loyal user of Windows Media player since at least the Real Jukebox days, and switched to WMP 7 because it allowed me to more effectively organize and access music files. However, with each new release of WMP I have found it more and more difficult to use the application in the ways that I want to. This means that once I have actually learned how to make an application work for me--rather than the other way around--they change it again. How, then, can Microsoft make the incredible claim that each new version is "more convenient, easier to use, a part of your everyday life", etc...

As a result of this declensionary trend, there are several everyday things that I can no longer use on WMP. (Note, these gripes ignore the hardware glitches and associated crashes that also accompany this product)

(1.) The Library window is now so compromised that I cannot set it to display as I would like. To tell the truth, I'm not even sure I can delete files from the player. In this case, and others, WMP seems to go to extraordinary lengths to try and do everything for me. This means, however, that I have to find workarounds to do what I want. Not a good sign.

(2.) The "Now Playing" Window (within the Library tab) is less than useless. I can not actually see what is playing unless I scroll down and look for it myself. Not really convenient if you have more than say, 50 music files. Oh yes, the columns within Now Playing give you the option of displaying "title" and "length". That's it. No rating column. Not even an artist column. Certainly not a ratings column!

(3.) Finally (in the interest of brevity),WHAT HAPPENED TO THE AMG MUSIC GUIDE? Am I the only one that thought that was the most unique and enjoyable thing about WMP? Wasn't it nice to be able to read about the artists and albums while they were playing? Weren't Stephen Thomas Erlewine's, et. al, reviews illuminating? They certainly got me out the door to buy CD's. I simply do not understand how removing that made this version better. Should one want to look at album information they are immediately whisked away to spend money online. What a rip; this crass money-grubbing function would also seem to assume that since I didn't buy my music online I don't already own the music I'm listening to...

I have read several reviews that compare this media player favorably with iTunes. I really don't like iTunes, either, but have become more familiar with it as a result of my frustrations with each successive release of Windows Media Players. To tell you the truth, I suspect that a lot of the glowing reviews for this product are originating from Mac users and employes, who want to see Microsoft go down. I think, however, I can understand where these haters are coming from.

I will not say categorically that YOU should not use WMP 11 or the Vista media player, but given the rounds of frustration that invariably accompany any new Microsoft roll-out, I can no longer swallow Microsoft's platitudes that their new products are somehow "better", esepecially when direct experience and observation contradict everything that is being crammed down my throat. Sometimes I think 3.1 was the way to go...

WMP 11 is "flashier" than WMP 10, and if you can live with that then go for it. I sure don't think it is more functional, and my gripe is that Vista media player continues in the trend of isolating users from their music instead of allowing them to enjoy their music as they would like. If WMP had managed to incorporate a pleasing interface with a functional--and stable--application maybe I could have laughed at Microsoft's obvious alarm that they are losing a microscopic portion of their market share (this coming after multiple worldwide anti-trust suits!)

For these reasons I am actively seeking a third-party media player, which I suspect in time will lead me to a new operating platform. Can you imagine a media player so unacceptable that it makes a user want to switch Operating Systems? I sure can...

Review: With WMP11, all my music was better organised! It acutaly found all the albums for my music. Amazing.

Review: I have found WMP11 absolutely useless. I don't have it myself but have been trying to set it up for my mother who has just gotten vista (the poor girl).

WMP will not play sound on DVDs no matter what I do I have tried everything, ranging from MS's useful support (you have mute on(thankyou very much!)), to the forums about the net (conflicting codec issues, divx not installed properly, sound card not installed properly, codecs out of date etc)

Luckily I have VLC player installer saved on my hard drive so after 4 hours coming through the net I decided it would be easier to teach my mother to use VLC.

My experience with WMP11, vista and nearly all of MS's new products so far has prompted me to uninstall XP and change to unbuntu so I can get used to linux before XP become obsolete.

Thankyou very much microsoft.

Review: How do you totally screw up something that was previously so easy to use and convenient? Microsoft apparently has the answer. There are plenty of things that make Windows Media Player 11 for Vista just plain terrible. A lot of the problem has to do with the navigation and interface - if you want to delete multiple files at a time, for instance, you'll have to select them all manually, as there's no longer a "select all" option. Furthermore, the program has an annoying habit of just sorting your files however it feels like it instead of taking your input - for some unfathomable reason, Microsoft decided that it would be more convenient if in the "songs" submenu of your music library the songs would be organized under headings that indicate the album name instead of just giving you a plain list (which you would think was the idea in the first place). Other minor frustrations that add up to a thoroughly painful experience include the fact that the Now Playing list can't be displayed in the Playlist pane while navigating in the library (which makes it less convenient to select songs to play, of course) as well as several missing features from the last Windows Media Player. For instance, the player will no longer tell you how many songs are in each list (so you'll have to count them all yourself if you want to know) or how long each song is while it's playing - only how much has progressed. The final blow, though (and by far the worst), is the total screw up that results if you try to sync up a portable device with the player. I've experienced every kind of difficulty trying to get just eleven songs properly organized into a playlist on my MP3 player - some songs have the .mp3 tag in their track name for no apparent reason, other songs display track names that I have long since reverted, and one song simply can't be added to the playlist (again, no explanation). Perhaps the worst part of all this is that the player continues to function without even any indication that it's aware that it completely screwed up the files. The list goes on, but there simply aren't enough words to put into this review to help me describe why this player is such a load of crap. If you already have Windows Media Player 10, I can't beg you enough not to upgrade.

Review: For the firts time, I have dropped Windows Media Player Windows Media Player from my Music Managing Program of choice.

Top Ten Reasons Why
1. iTunes has a much better and user friendly interface.
2. iTunes allows me to show a listed library view of my music, was in WMP 10 but dropped.
3. iTunes lets me look at my CD's with Cover Flow, Cover Flow is like having my CD Jewel Cases inside my computer.
4. Dropped WMP 11 when I heard the Zune will not work with WMP 11, a huge, huge error by Microsoft.
5. iTunes Pod Casting is powerful, and works..I can listed to sports, news, tech news, tidbits,
6. iTunes has this market, simply by advertising a device created by RIO, nobody ever advertised the MP3 player...Nuff Said..
7. iTunes is fast, nimble, and simply works
8. iTunes asks you to back up your purchased music to CD's to protect your investment!!
9. Microsoft had the Music Market, and now Apple is knocking on the door of their PC Market...Like in the NFL, you fumble too much you loose the game.
10. Windows Media Player is simply lacking too many features. I loved this program, but iTunes simply works!! Good Bye WMP.