Windows® 7 Secrets®

Chapter 11. Digital Music and Audio

In This Chapter

• Using Windows Media Player to play and manage music

• Understanding the new Windows Media Player user interface

• Working with digital music, photos, videos, and recorded TV

• Ripping and burning CDs

• Accessing your media from Explorer

• Synchronizing with portable media devices, including the iPod

• Sharing your media library with other PCs, devices, and the Xbox 360

• Buying music online

Windows has always included playback capabilities for digital audio, though those capabilities were admittedly basic until early the 1990s. By the time it was getting ready to retire its legacy DOS-based versions of Windows, however, Microsoft had turned its flagship OS into a multimedia maven. And with the launch of its first all-in-one digital media player—Windows Media Player 7, with Windows Millennium Edition (Me) in 2000—the company made it clear that music and audio were only the beginning.

Today, Windows 7 includes a number of audio technologies that are dramatic improvements over previous Windows versions. Key among them is Windows Media Player 12, which supports all kinds of digital media content, including digital audio and music, videos, photos, recorded TV shows, streaming Internet media, and more.

In Windows 7, Microsoft has augmented Windows Media Player in several important and exciting ways. The player thoroughly integrates with new Windows 7 shell features, providing a custom Jump List and taskbar thumbnail window for a truly unique experience. It is ...