About the Windows Media Player SDK
[The feature associated with this page, Windows Media Player SDK, is a legacy feature. It has been superseded by MediaPlayer. MediaPlayer has been optimized for Windows 10 and Windows 11. Microsoft strongly recommends that new code use MediaPlayer instead of Windows Media Player SDK, when possible. Microsoft suggests that existing code that uses the legacy APIs be rewritten to use the new APIs if possible.]
The Microsoft Windows Media Player Software Development Kit (SDK) provides information and tools to customize Windows Media Player and Windows Media Player Mobile and to use the Windows Media Player ActiveX control and the Windows Media Player Mobile ActiveX control. This documentation also provides information about using Windows Media metafiles.
Support for customizing Windows Media Player is provided by:
- Windows Media Player skins. Skins allow you both to customize the Player user interface and to enhance its functionality by using XML.
- Windows Media Player plug-ins. Windows Media Player includes support for plug-ins that create visualization effects, that perform digital signal processing (DSP) tasks, that add custom user interface elements to the full mode Player, and that render custom data streams in digital media files created using the ASF file format.
- Windows Media Player online stores. Online stores are commercial businesses that integrate their services into the Windows Media Player user interface to offer digital media content for rent or for sale.
Embedding the Windows Media Player control is supported for a variety of technologies, including:
- HTML in Web browsers. Microsoft Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Netscape Navigator version 7.1 browsers are supported.
- Programs created with the Microsoft Visual C++® development system.
- Programs created with Microsoft Visual Basic® 6.0.
- Programs created using the .NET Framework, including programs written in the Visual Basic and C# programming languages.
- Microsoft Office.
The Windows Media Player Mobile control is supported in the following technologies:
- HTML in Microsoft Pocket Internet Explorer.
- Programs created with the Microsoft eMbedded Visual C++ 4.0 development system.
- Programs based on Active Template Library (ATL) 3.0 or higher.
This overview contains the following sections:
| Section | Description |
|---|---|
| About Windows Media Player SDK Versions | Describes the version history of the Windows Media Player SDK. |
| Organization of the Documentation | Explains where to find information about specific technologies in the SDK documentation. |
| What's New in Windows Media Player 12 | Lists the features that are new in Windows Media Player 12. |
| What Was New in Windows Media Player 11 | Lists the features that were new in Windows Media Player 11. |
| Samples | Describes the code samples installed with the SDK and where to find them. |
| For More Information | Describes where to find the latest white papers and articles on the Microsoft website. |
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