Microsoft Windows Media Player Redistribution Information

The information in this article applies only to the Microsoft® Windows Media™ Player control shipped with the Microsoft® DirectX® Media 6.0 SDK. For more current information, see the Microsoft Windows Media Player redistribution page.

The Windows Media Player installation supports a number of switches and registry settings for your specific installation needs. As a stand-alone installation, the package typically displays a user interface (UI) and takes over the playback of multimedia file types. Applications that install the Windows Media Player can override this behavior by setting registry flags and command line switches.

Note  Before distributing any of the Windows Media Player packages you must comply with the License Agreement provided with this SDK.

This article contains the following sections.

Command Line Switches

All of the Windows Media Player command-line switches are optional. If you were to use all the Windows Media Player command-line switches to launch the full Windows Media Player package (Mpfull.exe) as the following example illustrates, then Mpfull would launch with no user interface, without prompting for a restart, and without taking over most multimedia file types. 

mpfull /Q:A /R:N /C:"mp2wrap.exe /Quiet /ISVInstall"

The Windows Media Player packages support the following command-line switches.

/Q:A Quiet Switch

The /Q:A is the quiet switch. Setting this flag turns off most of the UI. The exception to this would be the prompting of the user for a restart. If the Windows Media Player requires a restart, it will prompt the user with a dialog box. If you would like to prevent the restart dialog box, simply add the following command-line switch /R:N.

/R:N No Restart Switch

The /R:N command-line switch will prevent the user from seeing the restart dialog box. This means your application will be responsible for restarting the user's machine, or prompting for it. If the Windows Media Player requires a restart, your application must handle it.

/C:"mp2wrap " The Command Switch

The Command switch enables you to override certain pieces of the Windows Media Player install. The Windows Media Player installer also provides the following support.

/Quiet Quiet Switch

The Quiet Switch will turn off the banner UI displaying which piece of the package is being installed. This switch is turned on automatically if you use the /Q switch on the Mpfull package.

/ISVInstall Extension Take Over

The default behavior for the Windows Media Player packages is to take over various file name extensions. You might want your applications to override that behavior. To do so, simply add the /ISVInstall switch to the MP2Wrap installer. When the switch is used, only the following extensions will be taken over: .asf, .asx, .lsx, and .lsf.

Note  The registration of the Indeo 5.0 codecs might cause the Windows Media Player to take over the IVF file types. Also, the Windows Media Player registers itself for the Microsoft® ActiveMovie™, Microsoft® NetShow™, and Windows Media Player CLSIDs. Therefore, in situations where the CLSID is used to play back a file, the Windows Media Player will still be called.

Registry Flags

This section contains the following topics.

Turning off the Windows Media Player URL

If you do not want to display the Windows Media Player URL at the end of setup, you can change this behavior through a registry setting. By adding a registry key to the user's machine prior to setup execution, you can prevent the Windows Media Player from displaying a URL or point the default URL to your own Web site.

Note  The Windows Media Player will remove this setting upon completion of setup, so you must set this registry key every time you install.

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Setup, "URLAtCompletion", "[No|<url>]"

If "URLAtCompletion" is set to "no", the Windows Media Player will not launch a Web page at the end of setup. If the "URLAtCompletion" is set to a Web page such as "http://www.microsoft.com" the Web page will be launched at the end of setup.

Note  If the user must restart their system on install, the Windows Media Player setup will not launch the Web page.

Preventing Users From Uninstalling the Windows Media Player

If your application depends on the Windows Media Player being installed, it is very important that you prevent users from accidentally uninstalling the Windows Media Player. To prevent users from uninstalling the Windows Media Player, your setup program should add the following key to the registry.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, "Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\DependentComponents",
   "<Application Name>"

In the preceding key, "<Application Name>" is a unique string indicating the name of your application.

After you have set this flag, the user will be warned before allowing the Windows Media Player uninstall to continue. If this flag is set, when the user chooses to uninstall, the Windows Media Player setup will not remove the files, but will restore the registry such that the Windows Media Player is no longer the default player. For compatibility reasons, the Windows Media Player will still own the CLSID for ActiveMovie, NetShow and the Windows Media Player. When your application uninstalls, it is important for your application to remove the "<Application Name>" entry it placed in the registry.

Do not remove the DependentComponents key itself, or you might break other applications.

Microsoft Windows Media Player Packages

The Windows Media Player comes in six different packages. Review this document carefully to determine which package is appropriate for your application.

This section contains the following topics.

Three of the packages are designed only for installation on machines on which Internet Explorer 4.01 or later is already installed. If your application is designed to use the Windows Media Player and Internet Explorer 4.01, and your target machine will have Windows 98, Windows 95 with Internet Explorer 4.01, or any future version of Windows, then you should use one of the following packages: Mpie4ful.exe, Mpie4std.exe, or Mpie4min.exe.

These packages are smaller because they do not contain necessary Internet Explorer support files, nor do they include the Netscape plug-in.

The other three packages are designed for installations on systems lacking Internet Explorer 4.01 or later.

Package Locations

These Microsoft Windows Media Player packages are located under the Redist\x86\MPlayer subdirectory of this SDK. If you acquired this SDK through a download from the Web, these packages require a separate download. For more information, see the download instructions on the download site.

The packages that do not require Internet Explorer 4.0 are located in the following subdirectory.

redist\<processor>\MPlayer\<lang>\non-IE4

The packages that rely on Internet Explorer 4.0 are located in the following subdirectory.

redist\x86\MPlayer\<lang>\IE4orLaterRequired

Where <lang> is the language of choice; for example, English.

Package Detail

This topic describes each Windows Media Player package.

Mpfull.exe (4.1 MB)

Mpstd.exe (3.7 MB)

Mpmin.exe (3.3 MB)

Mpie4ful.exe (2.4 MB)

Mpie4std.exe (1.2 MB)

Mpie4min.exe (1.1 MB)

Codec Packages

This topic describes the codec packages available in the Windows Media Player packages.

Core codec package

Full codec package (core codec package plus the following list)

Auto-codec download

The Windows Media Player provides an automatic codec download feature. When the Windows Media Player determines that a particular codec is needed to play a piece of content and that codec does not exist on the computer, this feature enables codecs to be automatically downloaded from the Web. This feature is useful when the full codec package is not installed and the machine has Web access.

Note  Codec download only works for machines on which Internet Explorer 3.02 or later is installed.

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