Windows Media Player

Windows Media Player is a proprietary freeware software media player used for playing audio, as well as viewing video and images on personal computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system. Microsoft has also made available versions for other operating systems including Pocket PC, Mac OS (development on which has now ended), and Solaris. These tend to lag behind the Windows versions in features, software update frequency, and the number of file formats supported. The basic file formats are WMV (Windows Media Video & Audio), WMA (Windows Media Audio), and ASF (Advanced Streaming Format), and supports its own playlists files called WPL (Windows Playlist).

Timeline

1998

June 25 Windows Media Player 6.1

1999

November 22 Windows Media Player 6.4 for Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.0

2000

July 17 Windows Media Player 6.3 for Mac OS
July 17 Windows Media Player 6.3 for Solaris
July 17 Windows Media Player 7 for Windows 98 and Windows 2000
September 14 Windows Media Player 7.0 for Windows Me bundled with the OS
December 12 Windows Media Player 7 for Pocket PC

2001

July 24 Windows Media Player 7.0.1 for Mac OS
October 25 Windows Media Player 8 for Windows XP bundled with the OS on its release

2002

January 8 Windows Media Player 7.1 for Mac OS

2003

January 27 Windows Media Player 9 for Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows Me, and Windows 2000 and a separate version for Windows XP
June 23 Windows Media Player 9 for Pocket PC
November 7 Windows Media Player 9 for Mac OS X

2004

August 10 Windows Media Player 9 for Windows XP Service Pack 2 bundled with the OS on its release
September 2 Windows Media Player 10 for Windows XP bundled with XP MCE 2005
October Windows Media Player 10 Mobile for Pocket PC and SmartPhone. Included in Windows Mobile 5.0

2006

Windows Media Player 11 (codenamed Polaris)

Windows Media Player 10 for Windows XP