windows media player is the default application of windows that plays audio and video.
windows media player is the default application of windows that plays audio and video.
which default application of windows plays audio and vedio?
windows media player
different media players have different goals and feature sets. "video players" are a group of media players that have their features geared more towards playing digital video. for example, windows dvd player exclusively plays dvd-video discs and nothing else. media player classic can play individual audio and video files but many of its features such as color correction, picture sharpening, zooming, set of hotkeys, dvb support and subtitle support are only useful for video material such as films and cartoons. "audio players", on the other hand, specialize in digital audio. for example, aimp exclusively plays audio formats. mediamonkey can play both audio and video format but many of its features including media library, lyric discovery, music visualization, online radio, audiobook indexing and tag editing are geared toward consumption of audio material. in addition, watching video files on it can be a trying feat. general-purpose media players also do exist. for example, windows media player has exclusive features for both audio and video material, although it cannot match the feature set of media player classic and mediamonkey combined.
media player software
a common issue in previous windows versions was that competing applications doing common tasks each tried to associate themselves as the default for a certain file type using their own custom user interface. the default application information for a particular file type was stored in the registry on a per-machine basis, resulting in applications changing another user's default program when one user's defaults were changed and each application querying several different registry values when launched. in windows vista onwards, file type associations and protocol handlers can be set on a per-user basis using the new "default programs" api, meaning default programs for file types and tasks can be different for each individual user. there is an api for calling a common "user interface" so applications no longer need to maintain their own file association ui. the default programs api gives applications a programmatic way to check for and discover other default applications, restore a single or all registered defaults, query for the owner of a specific default file association/protocol, launch the "default programs ui" for a specific application or clear all per user associations. applications only need to registered at install time to be part of "default programs".
features new to windows vista