Windows Media Player 11 Beta

I read over at LifeHacker about the new Beta release of WMP 11. As an avid fan of the program, I decided to give it a shot. WMP 10 was nice, but it was kind of getting old, and the screen shot on LifeHacker looked so sexy! So I downloaded and played around. It has its ups and downs, but over all, I like it a lot.

Its slick new interface is really really nice. It just looks more modern. A more “Today’s PC” kind of feel. It compliments XP’s Royale Theme very nicely. The top options work right into the skin, but you can opt for the ‘normal’ view. The icons are also a lot nicer- with those and a few more subtleties, the who things looks a lot cool and aesthetically pleasing. It also had strong functionality and music management. New to this version, the album cover is shown next to all the music (see above). It makes the music a lot more readable and much more organized. The search function is also nicer. My favorite part is the “Update Album Info” button. Previous to this version, all of my Blink 182 songs were on the album Blink 182, and there was no easy way to change that. However, with WMP 11, The simple click of a button fixed all of that for me. PS- it also comes with URGE, Mtv and Microsoft’s “iTunes Killer”

But no program (especially a Microsoft BETA program) comes without its cons. Really, I only have 2 3 complaints. The install took WAY too long. I mean almost an hour by the time I restarted and reorganized. It is also a memory hog. I will attribute that to the fact that it is a BETA though. But still, at times, it’s pretty slow and it has crash on me once in the 2 days I have had it. The last thing is that it deleted all of my licenses. Before I realized you could rip CDs to license free .mp3s, I ripped all my music to .wmas with licence info. So some of the music I have owned pre may 2003 needs a license for the PC I want to listen to it on. All of that was already on WMP 10, but must have gotta ousted with the new BETA.

All in all it’s a pretty fantastic program that I would recommend to those who love WMP, Betas or both, or to those who might be in the market for a new media player/music store. You can get it here. You can also read LifeHacker’s post, with most screen shots, here. Later!