Thursday, September 2, 2004

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Windows Media Player 10 and Windows 2003

Microsoft just released the new Windows Media Player 10. At the same time they also released a Preview Release of the Music Download service. The Music Download Press release service says:



In addition to the new U.S.-only service, MSN is also working with industry partners in several international markets to offer music services that meet the specific needs and desires of the consumers in those regions. Through these relationships, an MSN Music offering, built on industry partner technology, is currently available in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Brazil, Korea and Australia.


So far so good; finally a music download service that can be used from Italy as well. iTunes doesn't want to sell songs to me and Rhapsody requires me to buy a subscription. I had a quick look at Wippit but they have few songs.


Now to the crap part. The Windows Media Player 10 download page doesn't allow me to download the player to my Win2k3 laptop. Using the display all link I managed to find the real download link: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=34505 It downloaded in no time but the setup only runs on Windows XP.  My trick for working around broken Windows XP software did -not- work :-(



  • Extract the files in mp10setup.exe
  • Right click on the extracted file setup_wm.exe and select "Properties"
  • Select the "Compatibility tab"
  • Enable the option "Run this program in compatibility mode for:"
  • Select "Windows XP"

It takes more than broken software to make me give up, so I decided to download "Hey Ya!" by OutKast  from the online store. I don't have the latest media player but at least I should be able to buy and download songs. Or so I thought. I can select the song but as soon as I click on "Confirm", the site redirects me to the Windows Media Player 10 download page (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/default.aspx)  Bug or Feature?


 

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