Soroush Javidi

So I heard of the new beta release of Windows Media Player and decided to see if there are any noticible improvements. Well, for a start, I went to download it using Firefox, and instead of getting problems from the website saying that I'm using a wrong browser, or giving me a link to download Internet Explorer, I got information on how to download their Windows Genuine Advantage plug-in.That's a change: Accepting other browsers!

As for the player itself, it's the same WMP, looks a tiny bit different, and you can listen to you music, watch videos and look at your digital pictures! Looks like a real media hub! I'm not keen on the fact that it automatically puts the My Music folder into its watch folder, and no matter what [I haven't been successful so far] you do, it keeps populating the library with your music. I'd like to have the choice of letting it add, not have it add without me wanting it! And I definately don't want to view my pictures in there!

Only positive point that I could give to the new WMP 11 is the fact that it shows your music and videos with album art (or thumbnails)! You can also customise how they are shown. So instead of a long list, you get the artist/album name and you get the album art. In the album view, you can also see the list of songs showing very neatly next to the album art. This is something that I look forward to in Winamp (I use Winamp).

That's about it I guess, nothing too special about the beta WMP 11!