Hi, my name’s Cody, and I’m working with the Windows Media Outreach Team to help answer questions that folks might have about their copies of Windows Media Player.

You’re right. . .a lot of the problems that pop up can often be attributed to codecs, but before you run out and start randomly downloading all kinds of codec packs, make sure that they are 1) from a trusted source, and 2) codecs that you actually need.

Sometimes, codecs will disagree with one another, so having a ton of them on your system can cause all kinds of problems. There are several codec tools, available for free, that will analyze your files to see what, if any, codecs you’ll need to play the files you want to play.

Here are a couple of free tools that will do this for you: Gspot (http://www.headbands.com/gspot/) and Sherlock (http://www.updatexp.com/sherlock-codec-detective.html) Both of these work great, and using these on your file will tell you what codecs you need to get a file running properly, without making you download anything that you don’t need.

I hope these links and resources are helpful!

Thanks,

Cody
Windows Media Outreach Team

Oh, we are using the same wordpress theme.