To play Windows media in Firefox, Firefox needs the Windows Media Player browser plugin installed. There are two different versions:

• The original, which is usually included with Windows from 98 up to XP Home/Professional
• The new version, which is specifically for Windows XP and Windows Vista and is only available by download.

Many Windows XP users will have the old plugin already, but it is recommended that you install the new plugin anyway.

This article describes how to check for and install the Windows Media Player plugin in Windows XP/Vista. XP users may already have the old plugin, but the new plugin is recommended.

Table Of Contents

• Checking if the plugin is installed
• Installing the plugin
• Testing the plugin
• Advanced information
• Differences compared to Internet Explorer
• File types it will play
• JavaScript
• Internet Explorer-only coding
• ActiveX
• Requirements
• Installation
• Installation

Checking if the plugin is installed

Installing the plugin

If the entry described above is not present, then the plugin is not installed. You have to download it.

1. Go to the plugin download page on Port25.
   • (The Port25 page also contains more detailed installation instructions).
2. Click "Download Now!" You will be prompted to save a file.
3. Save the file to your desktop.
4. Once it has downloaded, run it, and the plugin will install.
5. When the installation has finished, close and restart Firefox:
   1. Click the File menu at the top of the Firefox window, and select Exit.
   2. When Firefox has completely closed, start Firefox up again.

Testing the plugin

The following link is to a test player that requires the new Windows Media Player plugin. If the player loads and plays, then the plugin is installed correctly: http://plugindoc.mozdev.org/testpages/wmp11.html

Advanced information

Differences compared to Internet Explorer

File types it will play

Internet Explorer uses the Windows Media Player ActiveX Control to play media, and Internet Explorer will use it to play any media format that Windows Media Player itself can play.

The Windows Media Player plugin will only play the Windows media file types such as wmv and asx, unless the web site is very specifically crafted.

This means that where an embedded mp3, for example, would play in Windows Media Player in Internet Explorer, it would play most likely using QuickTime in Firefox. Windows Media Player does not provide any way of changing the file types the Windows Media Player plugin will play.

For many of these file types, such as midi and mpeg, the QuickTime plugin will first need to be configured to play them - this can be done within its user preferences. Otherwise, you will see a missing plugin alert for QuickTime even if you already have QuickTime installed. For more information, see the QuickTime article.

As an alternative, the IE Media Mimic user script (for use with the Greasemonkey extension) can correct this issue in most cases - embedded media that would normally not play with Windows Media Player in Firefox will be made to.

Details (hidden)

• Internet Explorer uses ActiveX to embed other applications within itself, whereas most other browsers use the NPAPI plugin system, as Firefox does.
  
  Internet Explorer uses the Windows Media Player ActiveX control to play any file type that Windows Media Player itself can play - this includes wav, mpeg, mp3, etc.
  
  The NPAPI plugin system is fundamentally different: Each plugin lists the file types it can play, and the browser uses these lists to choose a plugin for a particular file.
  
  The Windows Media Player plugin only lists the Windows Media formats: asf, asx, wm, wma, wax, wmv, wvx. It does not play wav, mp3, mpeg, or other common formats unless the web page is very specifically crafted.
  
  QuickTime is the only Windows browser plugin that can be configured to play formats like mp3, mpeg, wav, etc.
  
  The IE Media Mimic user script modifies how the media is embedded so that it requests the Windows Media Player plugin every time for most file types. In its default configuration, the user must manually trigger it - it will not convert the page automatically.

JavaScript

Some web pages use JavaScript to build custom player control buttons or to retrieve and display information on the player's current status.

The original Windows Media Player plugin (included with Windows XP home/pro and older) did not support this capability. The new plugin (downloadable for use in XP/Vista) does, but most sites using these advanced functions still specifically target Internet Explorer. So, they won't work even with the new plugin until the page is updated to account for it.

Details (hidden)

• The original Windows Media Player plugin included with Windows versions up to XP Home/Professional does not support JavaScript controls. Most of these web pages therefore were specifically written to use these features on the Windows Media Player ActiveX Control. ActiveX objects are ignored in Firefox by design, as it does not have ActiveX support.
  
  For it to work in Firefox, either the object must be created differently depending on the browser used, or a second object is needed and the JavaScript controls must be intelligent enough to know which object to use.

Internet Explorer-only coding

Some websites embed media in ways that only work in Internet Explorer - either because those who wrote the site do not know how to write code that works in other browsers, or they don't know they need to, or they don't want to.

The aforementioned IE Media Mimic user script can also correct many kinds of IE-only coding.

ActiveX

ActiveX is the system Internet Explorer uses in place of the NPAPI plugin system that most other browsers use. There was a plugin for Netscape-based browsers that grants the browser partial ActiveX support - this would allow Firefox to use the Windows Media Player ActiveX Control and the majority of its functionality, and so work on many otherwise Internet Explorer-only pages.

However, the most recent version only supports Firefox 1.5 and does not work in Firefox 2 or 3. More detailed information can be found in the ActiveX article.

Windows Media Player used to be available for the Mac platform, but is no longer supported by Microsoft. In its place, Flip4Mac is the replacement of choice - it adds Windows media playback capabilities to Quicktime.

Requirements

Flip4Mac is an add-on for Quicktime, so Quicktime must be installed first. For information on Quicktime, see the Quicktime article.

Installation

Download and install Flip4Mac from the official web site: http://www.flip4mac.com/wmv_download.htm
The web site includes more detailed installation and usage instructions.

Windows Media Player has never been available for the Linux platform. mplayer is a popular Linux media player that can play back Windows media. There is a separate browser plugin for it.

Installation

The plugin can be usually installed as a package for the current Linux distro used (for example in Ubuntu it is named mozilla-mplayer) or can be downloaded from the mplayerplug-in website and built from scratch - if you choose to do so, please follow the instructions on the author's website.