Sandal Says: Enchantments?
If your only experience with Windows Media Player is via its Library screen, you’re missing out. Jam CTRL+3 to jump into the “Now Playing” window and, from there, right-click anywhere within the screen and select the “Enchantments” submenu. Click on any of the listed tweaks to get started.
In short, this series of screens (which you can navigate through using the right- and left-facing arrow buttons at the top) is where you enable and disable the various auditory effects built into WMP. Toggle auto-volume-leveling and cross-fading on and off, tweak equalizer bands, adjust playback speed, and set up the integrated SRS WOW effects for maximum, software-created bass and field-expansion effects… amongst other features, of course!
Giving Windows Media Player One Big Plus
Sometimes, you need to turn to a third-party developer to really unlock the best combinations of productive hacks for a particular piece of software. That’s not quite the case with the add-on package Windows Media Player Plus—even though it sounds like its own piece of software, if not a downright unlock, it’s actually just a really helpful amalgam of add-ons designed to maximize your WMP experience.
How? It builds a new tag editor, instant search capabilities, and automatic playlist-loading on startup right into WMP, amongst other useful features. Give it a shot!
What the Heck is a Codec?
Good question. If you go to play a movie file on your hard drive, only to find that Windows Media Player is giving you the soundtrack instead of the visual picture to go with it, then odds are pretty good that you lack the appropriate digital resources to decode your file into an actual video. In short, you’re missing the right codec.
Rather than get trapped in the big, “should you install them or not?” argument when it comes to codecs, we will leave you with this: the Combined Community Codec Pack is easy to install, simple to set up, and comes with no external trappings, obtrusive toolbars, or annoying clutter. If you want to watch every video under the sun, install it!
Streaming Across the Web
And here you thought we were done with the file-sharing chit-chat. Nope! A lesser-known feature of Windows Media Player 12 is its ability to allow you to share your music library with approved systems across the Web. That’s right. You can jam to your personal collection at work all the way up until your boss signs the pink slip.
Click on the Stream button within WMP’s Library view and select, “Allow Internet Access to Home Media.” You’ll have to sign up for (and download) a file from Microsoft in order to link your Windows Live ID to your actual desktop system. But once you’ve done so (on two different computers, that is), your personal radio station of-sorts will be good to do.
Lock Your PC, Lazy
Let’s face it. Life is short. One doesn’t always have time to pause a sound file or otherwise stop one’s jam session when more important issues beckon for whatever reason. That’s where the third-party app MonitorES comes into the picture. If you have to jet away for a period of time, just lock your PC (with the handy Windows Key+L shortcut combination, to note). MonitorES will not only pause your music in Windows Media Player, but it’ll also flip your monitor off and set the status of your instant messaging clients to whatever you’d like. Easy as pie.
Hotkey it Up
It’s not that difficult to use Windows Media Player’s built-in hotkeys to control elements like song playback, rewinding, looping, et cetera. So what’s the problem? You have to actually switch over to the application in order to use said shortcuts—you can’t just jam CTRL+P inside any window to pause or play a particular song in question.
WMPKeys fixes that by giving you new, global hotkeys for a few of WMP’s more commonly used features. Mash the correct combination and you’ll be able to skip tracks, play music, and even rate songs no matter what window or application you’re staring at.
I Want To Play More
BM Productions is two-for-two in this little Windows Media Player tome of knowledge. The creators of the aforementioned Windows Media Player Plus! Application are at it again, armed this time with a plug-in that gives your common application access to even more file formats than it could previously support!
Yes, that’s right. Their plug-in called WMP Tag Plus will unlock the ability to add MPEG-4, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, and WavPack files into your WMP library. You won’t be able to play them, however—check out some of the “additional packages” that BM Productions recommends if you really want WMP to be your default audio gateway for your massive FLAC collection. Shoot, we were happy enough to be able to edit FLAC metadata within WMP.
Say What?
