Windows Media Player

I currently have the Windows Media Player 9 series installed on my laptop computer.
I've also got the QuickTime player, which I think is the latest version player from Real Networks. However, I'm biased against them because when I installed RealPlayer on my home computer a few months ago, it set all my defaults for all media (even pictures) to use their software. This made me unhappy.

I'm trying to figure out how to set up a 'playlist' that randomly selects songs from my music library. Maybe the playlist isn't the best way to accomplish this. After I perused the help (briefly), a playlist appears to be a permanent list of the same songs. WMP will help to set up the playlist by selecting songs that meet certain criteria. This is cool. But, it doesn't help me with my random song selection efforts.

It appears that 'shuffle' is what I am after. I learned to shuffle a selected playlist by going to Now Playing; clicking the 'select playlist options' icon at the bottom of the list of songs; then choosing sort/randomize. This rearranges the songs in the playlist. If I am playing a particular album, the album itself is the playlist. Shuffling will rearrange the songs on the album and play them back in a random order.


Comments

Sean Meade said…
dude, you are playing with the wrong power.

run, don't walk, to WinAmp.com. download their player. it's non-proprietary. install. run. click on options--> preferences--> file types. click the 'all' button to associate everything with WinAmp.

the interface is not quite as slick as WMP or iTunes, but it won't mess with your stuff. it's well-supported by its community: lots of plug-ins, etc.

QuickTime is Apple's media player. it goes with iTunes, if you use that service. RealPlayer is it's own deal. i only use it for the odd RealPlayer file.

if you have questions or comments email me.
10:09 AM
Eric said…
Thanks for the WINAMP.COM tip, Sean. I am going to try this. I have never used iTunes, but I downloaded something last week that I needed the Quicktime player to listen to or to view. I thought it was a RealNetworks product--even though I knew iTunes was Apple. Obviously, I didn't put 2 and 2 together. Thanks for the information.

Do you have any opinions on an MP3 player? I had an MPIO MP3 player that recently broke, so I'm in the market for a new one in the $100 range.
5:13 PM
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