26 February 2010

Windows Media Player 12 and the red N on your desktop

If you have a red N next to Windows 7 Professional then you have the version without Windows Media Player. I can't imagine that you actually bought it. It's probably a version that you got on the back of an employer's licence, like me. It's the version without Windows Media Player. Apparently some EU ruling forced Microsoft to offer two versions of Windows - one with WMP and one without. They both are otherwise exactly the same and cost the same. So you'll deduce that Windows Media Player is 'free' and yes, if you do have that red N, then you can download the Windows Media Feature Pack from Microsoft.

As usual, though, finding it ain't that simple! I actually only discovered that I didn't have WMP when I wondered what the red N was as googled it! The link to the free WMP download wasn't obvious on any of the Microsoft links but, thanks to CNET, all was revealed.

Here's the link.

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