About the Player Object Model
[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 It has been superseded by MediaPlayer.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 control is a standard ActiveX control that uses Microsoft Component Object Model (COM) technology. The Windows Media Player functionality is distilled into a set of programming interfaces that follows standard COM guidelines. You can program these interfaces on a standard HTML webpage using the Player control object model with Microsoft JScript or Microsoft Visual Basic Scripting Edition (VBScript). You can also program them in skins by using Microsoft JScript. If you want to create a custom program that embeds the control, you can use one of several languages, including Visual Basic, C++, and C#.
The Windows Media Player ActiveX control is installed with Windows Media Player. The Player control is not installed with the Windows Media Player SDK and cannot be redistributed separately. The particular features available to your code depend on which version of Windows Media Player the user has installed. The Object Model Reference for Scripting and Object Model Reference for C++ include version requirement information for each property, method, and event.
The following sections provide overview information about the Windows Media Player object model.
| Section | Description |
|---|---|
| Player Object Model for Scripting Languages | This section describes the objects available in the object model. |
| About the Object Model Versions | This section details which object model items have been added in each version since the introduction of Windows Media Player 7.0. |
| Properties, Methods, and Events | This section explains properties, methods, and events. |
| Supported Protocols and File Types | This section lists the protocols and file types supported by Windows Media Player and the Windows Media Player control object model. |
| About the Library | This section describes the Windows Media Player library. |
| Using HTML with Windows Media Player | This section describes the various ways to make Windows Media Player and HTML work together. |
| Embedding the Windows Media Player Control | This section describes the various ways to embed the Windows Media Player control in Microsoft Office documents and in custom programs. |
| About Device Synchronization | This section describes the functionality provided by the Windows Media Player 10 or later control for transferring digital media content to portable devices. |
| About CD Burning | This section describes the functionality provided by the Windows Media Player control for creating CDs. |
| About CD Ripping | This section describes the functionality provided by the Windows Media Player control for copying tracks from audio CDs to the user's computer. |
| About Folder Monitoring | This section describes the functionality provided by the Windows Media Player control for controlling the Player's folder monitoring processes. |
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