Huzzah: Microsoft Releases Windows Media Player Plug-In for Firefox

Tue Apr 17, 2007 11:24PM EDT

See Comments (3)

It's something most Firefoxers have wanted for years: A way to play WMV, or Windows Media Player, videos inside of the Firefox browser. With the IE Tab plug-in (and various other hacks), some clumsy workarounds have long been available, but now you needn't reload a page using the IE engine (which can wreak havoc at random) simply to see that video of a cat swinging on a ceiling fan again. You can download the add-on from this page.

The plug-in is an encouraging sign that Microsoft may be rethinking its ivory tower past and coming to grips with choice in the industry. Port 25 (which developed the plug-in) is a Microsoft offshoot that works only on open source projects. But yes, it's really part of Microsoft. Check the copyright at the bottom of the site's pages if you don't believe me. I've been using the plug-in today and have encountered zero problems.

If you want the plug-in (and all but the most casual Firefox user will), you'll need to have Windows Media Player 11 installed (this is downloadable via the standard Windows Update system), and be running Windows XP Service Pack 2 or Vista. You're best advised to upgrade to the latest version of Firefox before attempting to install, as well, though some users of Firefox's current edition (2.0.0.3) have reported the software crashes on install and the installer has to be run twice in order to complete.

See, I told you it was a real Microsoft product!

Comments on Huzzah: Microsoft Releases Windows Media Player Plug-In for Firefox

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  • 1 Posted by jameslongstrider on Wed Apr 18, 2007 1:11AM EDT Report Abuse

    Huzzah indeed. Now I'll be using IE even less then I did previously. I shall DL this post-haste-like. Thanks for finding this, Chris.

  • 2 Posted by degenl on Mon Apr 23, 2007 5:55PM EDT Report Abuse

    "the software crashes on install and the installer has to be run twice" Even in "open source" Microsoft products are consistent. I have used Firefox since it was first released and have never missed .wmv files. The less MS software on my computer the better.

  • 3 Posted by somebodys_here on Wed Apr 25, 2007 11:41PM EDT Report Abuse

    nice, now Firefox will be almost as buggy and uncontrollable as IE7. Fan-freaking-tastic. I'm just glad that this is an optional install, but seeing as most video sites that don't use flash use .wmv extensions I'll have to DL anyway. thanks for the link.

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