The new player was designed with user feedback from previous versions in mind. Gone are many of the extraneous curvy user interface elements, in favor of a sleeker design. As in previous versions, various tools are arranged into tabbed sections at the top of the window, such as Now Playing, Library, Rip, Burn, Sync, and making its debut in the default configuration, the online music store URGE.
Microsoft is clearly, one might even say URGEntly, pushing this new download service as a rival to Apple's iTunes Music Store. However, the store, developed in partnership with MTV, lacks the polish of its rival. It seemed to not do anything at all until I accidentally moused over the tiny "GUIDE" icon in the top right corner. Even then, the user interface was slow and somewhat confusing. However, once I did get to the actual songs, the store seemed quite similar to the iTMS, with most songs going for the standard $0.99. Microsoft claims that WMP 11 Beta 2 supports "even more online stores" than earlier versions, but apart from URGE, they were not easy to find.
As for the rest of the player, it hasn't changed too much from WMP 10, other than making life easier by allowing the menu options to be accessed from anywhere on the toolbar, not just at a particular location. It seems as if regular menu bars are persona non grata at Microsoft these days, with many new applications (and much of Vista) seemingly banishing them like errant children. One can still opt to "Show Classic Menus," however.
WMP 11 still supports skins, but the default look is now a slick shiny black for the toolbar and user interface elements (the Vista version inherits that operating system's default look instead). The player controls (stop, pause, rewind, etc.) are arranged nicely and are now large enough to be controlled easily. A slimline version is available at the click of a button for those who don't like to have a big window on their screen. Visualizations have been improved, but this comes at a costâ€â€in my case, an average of 30 percent CPU usage on a 2.4 GHz Pentium 4.
On Microsoft's frequently asked questions page, the software giant spends a lot of time discussing how WMP is an integral part of the operating system and cannot be removed, although you can roll back to earlier versions if you wish. In a nod to the European Union, the web page states that "Windows Media Player 11 is designed to work with all versions of Windows XP Service Pack 2 including Windows XP Home Edition N and Windows XP Professional N."
ther than that i see no other differances visually.
