Microsoft Windows Media Player 10

The all-singing, all-dancing player from Microsoft

22 December 2004
Platform: Windows XP
Type: freeware
Manufacturer: Microsoft
Size: 12MB
Rating:

Verdict: A feature-packed player with great auto-tagging features, but you do have to pay to burn MP3 files

Many digital music listeners settle on Windows' very own Media Player for the simple reason that it offers playback, can burn CDs, slots neatly into Windows and is free. It's very capable all round, but how does it square up when it comes to MP3 tagging?

Well, in terms of automatic tagging, it is extremely competent. When you burn a CD, Windows Media Player will access the Windows Media website, which in turn sources its music info from other music databases, and automatically tags the music.

If the details are wrong, you can perform a manual search too. On an individual level, you can edit the details of individual tracks or several at once, and you can edit the details of whole albums, and re-order files according to their tags.

There is, however, one minor bind if you're considering burning your CDs onto your hard drive using Windows Media Player: without downloading (and paying for) a plug-in, you can't create MP3s, only Microsoft's own audio format, WMA.