WMP11 running on 2003 Server

[kevin551]

Hi

I wish to start this thread to discuss the actual running of Windows Media Player 11 on Windows 2003 Server.

At present WMP11 is not supported by Microsoft on 2003 Server, and possibly may never be.

But it can be installed using the WindowsXP setup files :- see https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=461539

I have had a working WMP11 for the last week on a demo machine. It seems to work fine. But who knows what will happen in the near future (post sp2)

I want to use WMP11 purely as a media library player.

I have a large mp3 collection already correctly tagged, and with album art working in WMP10.

WMP11 offers a much prettier graphical interface, has a better database for very large collections, and irons out a few of the WMP10 bugs.

I don't use drm, on-line stores or synced devices.

I don't use WMP11 for video playback. I prefer MediaPlayerClassic,

At the moment I am cautious of allowing WMP11 to access the Internet, or to retag any of my files.

WMP11 has upgraded my WMP10 Library correctly and is working well as an audio player. The graphical interface is a great improvement over WMP10.

Am interested to hear of other experiences users are having with WMP11 on 2003 Server.

Kevin

[MazX_Napalm]

This has been discussed before in this forum.

"At present WMP11 is not supported by Microsoft on 2003 Server, and possibly may never be." - for a reason. 99.999% of legit W2K3 installs are on servers and thus don't need any media player.

And before it all starts, if you have a license from your educational institution or a 180day trial license, those are for educational and testing purposes only and, according to the EULA (that you agree to at install), may not be used as a live OS. I have yet to come across a situation where testing a media player in Server was of any business use.

For the 0.001% of legit installs that have W2K3 as a workstation - tough luck. Use WM10. It is in there already and works.

Guess that why it is called "Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP".

[kevin551]

Hi

Thanks MazX for the quick reply and the download link for WMP11.

Just a couple of points to add

1. See here for a list of bugs in WMP10 http://msmvps.com/blogs/thinice/articles/16084.aspx

2. Server 2003 shipped with WMP9. For the 0.001% of legit installs that have W2K3 as a workstation and wish to use a media player Microsoft kindly added WMP10 as part of service pack 1.

3. Service pack 2 for Server 2003 is due to be released in the New Year.

Kevin

[yourmotherisold]

Server != Workstation

Guess it's hard to comprehend?

[Jock Horror]

hi there,

it may look weird, but windows server 2003 is the best workstation ever.... solid as a rock, flawless and very fast.................

[pjak]

are you guys forgetting that 2003 SP1 came with WMP10 by default (unlike XP SP2).

so Microsoft must think there is a place for their media player in the server environment.

I guess Microsoft will wait til SP2 and/or the encoder/server components go final before WMP11 is supported officially.

[Grope for Luna]

[kevin551]

Hi

Have now been running wmp11 for a couple of weeks without problem.

It's slow on loading as wmp builds the icon cache, but after that runs well.

Search on wmp11 is a lot better than on wmp10.

Here's some screen caps.

I installed WMPTagSupportExtender.1.1.1.msi just to get .ape support in wmp.

I don't intend to use this to edit the tags.

Kevin

[dorimcheon]

How many of you have a legal copy

[Menge]

How many of you have a legal copy

that's not the point of this thread. please don't derail it. (fact is, if they hadn't an illegal copy of server 2003, they'd prolly be using an illegal copy of XP SP2 anyway)

anyways

i had beta2 installed on a 2003 test machine. worked fine. never really got the chance to test the final. the wmp team said that WMP updates would come with the Service Packs....

[kallstrom_74]

i cant install wmp11 on my win2k3...tried batchfiles and all

well..i dont use english verions on wp11 or the os

BUT..when i try to install now it says that the servicepack is lower that the expexted..i have sp1 on ny machine

is there any way to trick wmp11 or edit the sp info so it says sp2?

[Sniper101]

hi there,

it may look weird, but windows server 2003 is the best workstation ever.... solid as a rock, flawless and very fast.................

Thought i might add to this but what version of windows server 2003 are you running? there is no such version as Server 2003.

There is only:

Small Business Server

Web Edition

Standard Edition

Enterprise Edition

Datacenter Edition

Compute Cluster Server

Storage Server

And all those edition carry the Edition Mark in the logo soooo....you can see why im curious lol and i seriously don't think you would had paid for it :| at the price id would have died.

[Inertia]

my server 2003 box stores all my music files, does this "workaround" allow upnp devices to access the media via media player 11 IE the xbox 360 ?

[REM2000]

Thought i might add to this but what version of windows server 2003 are you running? there is no such version as Server 2003.

There is only:

Small Business Server

Web Edition

Standard Edition

Enterprise Edition

Datacenter Edition

Compute Cluster Server

Storage Server

And all those edition carry the Edition Mark in the logo soooo....you can see why im curious lol and i seriously don't think you would had paid for it :| at the price id would have died.

A lot of students have the option to purchase Microsoft Server software and other microsoft software for ?100 odd, and with that you get Windows 2003 enterprise.

[Tech Freak]

There's a change people are right in saying that Server OSs make "excellent workstations" in terms of robustness stability etc. But given the extremely limited driver support with comparison to XP, I wouldn't bother. If everything works perfectly with your hardware and software, then you just got lucky. Typically you would expect a 2K3 server to create scores of problems with drivers, new motherboards, etc etc.

Besides, XP isn't too bad after SP2 was introduced. Unless you overload it with stuff, it's reasonably stable. I have yet to see the stability of good ol' Win2000, but I can't complain. Uptimes as long as 2 months with a single restart or an "end task" were common in 2K. With XP you might not get that lucky, but I think they're reasonably ok.

[Orry Verducci]

There is definately an appeal, for two reasons I can think of:

1) Some businesses, schools, ect just setup all the pc's as a terminal to the server, so only the server ever needs updating, and therefore the users would be stuck with WMP10 when they might want 11.

2) In my situation, I have a (legal copy) of Win Server 03 in a domain situation with the user accounts for my family (so they get same stuff on all pcs, and so I can filter the net and pc settings which they tend to screw up to the younguns). However due to the lack of pc's the server doubles up as a workstation, and my family use WMP11 a lot, which means the server needs WMP11 as I tend to leave them with that and then I use the better XP PC.

[Lemonzest]

Had WMP11 on since it came out (changed the SP number in reg and ran the installer in xp compat mode) and its been solid, and btw since using 2003 as a workstation (past 9 months now) i ONLY restart when i have to usually have uptimes of about 5-6 weeks of 24/7 usage games/video encoding, with xp after a few days uptime i'd get slowdowns, odd errors, programs crashing etc, NONE of that with 2003, tried vista and i think i'll be staying with 2003 till they end support!! its just a solid os.

Edit:just remembered from the chat on the 7th with MS on SP2 RC

Sarah - MS (Expert):

Q: is there any plan to add Media player 11 for windows 2k3 from SP2... just like in SP1 there was a upgrade to media player 10

A: No - WMP 11 will be supported on SP2 but not in it.

Edited December 14, 2006 by Lemonzest

[Mr. Dick C. Normous]

I am still running WMP11 on WinS2k3 and have not found any issues using my installer.

[kallstrom_74]

HOW did yot change the SP code so it said sp2 in the registry (where)

[Jock Horror]

Thought i might add to this but what version of windows server 2003 are you running? there is no such version as Server 2003.

There is only:

Small Business Server

Web Edition

Standard Edition

Enterprise Edition

Datacenter Edition

Compute Cluster Server

Storage Server

And all those edition carry the Edition Mark in the logo soooo....you can see why im curious lol and i seriously don't think you would had paid for it :| at the price id would have died.

actually I had a trial evaluation version of 2003 enterprise, which I've stripped and customized a little bit.... unfortunately the trial period is now over and I'm back to XP...

[Ryster]

Firstly, there are legitimate reasons for wanting the latest media player on a server. Thos who say otherwise are talking rubbish. What about the hundreds of thousands of people (if not millions) that use terminal services and/or Citrix. Essentially they are all using Server 2003 as a workstation.

...snip...

But given the extremely limited driver support with comparison to XP, I wouldn't bother. If everything works perfectly with your hardware and software, then you just got lucky. Typically you would expect a 2K3 server to create scores of problems with drivers, new motherboards, etc etc.

...snip...

What are you talking about? 2003 is based on XP and 95%+ of all XP drivers work just fine on Server 2003. For the vast majority of hardware, you don't need Server 2003 specific drivers.

that's not the point of this thread. please don't derail it. (fact is, if they hadn't an illegal copy of server 2003, they'd prolly be using an illegal copy of XP SP2 anyway)

...snip...

Rubbish. Firstly, you're forgetting the fact that server costs 3-4x the cost of XP. Just because a home user cannot justify the cost of purchasing Server 2003 just as a workstation, does not mean they could not justify the cost of purchasing XP. Secondly, the vast majority of XP installations out there are a result of OEMs. Sure some people will never pay for an OS and always go down the pirate route, but your statement that if they are using pirate 2003 means they would probably use pirate xp is just plain false.

my server 2003 box stores all my music files, does this "workaround" allow upnp devices to access the media via media player 11 IE the xbox 360 ?

No. uPnP is a function of the operating system, not the media player. 2003 does not support uPnP and according to a Microsoft employee I spoke to in the beta newsgroups, never will.

[Brian M. Veteran]

Well to be honest, at this moment in time, there isnt really a need for WMP11 on server 2003 (any of the editions).

The windows media streaming engine works the same for all versions 9 through 11 so there isnt really any difference server-side. Also, why the hell you'd wanna use a server as a workstation is beyond me ;)

[bobbba]

Firstly, there are legitimate reasons for wanting the latest media player on a server. Thos who say otherwise are talking rubbish. What about the hundreds of thousands of people (if not millions) that use terminal services and/or Citrix. Essentially they are all using Server 2003 as a workstation.

Who's talking rubbish???

Using terminal services or Citrix is nothing like the same thing as using 2003 server as a desktop OS because you "believe" :rolleyes: that it is faster and more reliable than xp. Citrix is unlikely to be ever used with wmp as it is unsuitable for intensive graphics, the sound sync would suffer and the utilisation of both the server and the network link would be heavy. A terminal services server is still acting as a server in that it is still serving a service to multiple network attached users. If you follow your logic mainframe users are all using a server OS as a workstation...

I don't doubt that there are a few legitimate reasons for wanting the latest wmp on a 2003 server however I suspect that this this is not the case for most if not all who have been posting on this and similar topics here.

[Ryster]

Who's talking rubbish???

Using terminal services or Citrix is nothing like the same thing as using 2003 server as a desktop OS because you "believe" :rolleyes: that it is faster and more reliable than xp. Citrix is unlikely to be ever used with wmp as it is unsuitable for intensive graphics, the sound sync would suffer and the utilisation of both the server and the network link would be heavy. A terminal services server is still acting as a server in that it is still serving a service to multiple network attached users. If you follow your logic mainframe users are all using a server OS as a workstation...

I don't doubt that there are a few legitimate reasons for wanting the latest wmp on a 2003 server however I suspect that this this is not the case for most if not all who have been posting on this and similar topics here.

I agree that terminal services/citrix is not suitable for video, however I can tell you that it works flawlessly for sound such as music, although not quite as high quality as if you were playing it locally.

[genebo]

Firstly, there are legitimate reasons for wanting the latest media player on a server. Thos who say otherwise are talking rubbish. What about the hundreds of thousands of people (if not millions) that use terminal services and/or Citrix. Essentially they are all using Server 2003 as a workstation.

What are you talking about? 2003 is based on XP and 95%+ of all XP drivers work just fine on Server 2003. For the vast majority of hardware, you don't need Server 2003 specific drivers.

Rubbish. Firstly, you're forgetting the fact that server costs 3-4x the cost of XP. Just because a home user cannot justify the cost of purchasing Server 2003 just as a workstation, does not mean they could not justify the cost of purchasing XP. Secondly, the vast majority of XP installations out there are a result of OEMs. Sure some people will never pay for an OS and always go down the pirate route, but your statement that if they are using pirate 2003 means they would probably use pirate xp is just plain false.

No. uPnP is a function of the operating system, not the media player. 2003 does not support uPnP and according to a Microsoft employee I spoke to in the beta newsgroups, never will.

I am in the same boat i would like to use the file server part of it ( I hate all the comments on the forum as to why dontcha run xp)

some of us have reasons heres one i have HP proliant hardware drivers for raid cards etc dont exist for xp. you have to run server for all drivers to work. now i have a dsm-520 media lounge to watch movies, music, photos over the network wired/wireless what better place to serve these files from then a server (go figure). I also have wmp 11 installed okay on it the check box will not work on share media libary because im guessing no upnp . upnp would alow it to identfy clients etc... that is a new reason at least for me to get upnp working on w2k3 (I believe Ms will see this need and fix it in the future while keeping it secure enough for server. If i could put xp on this thing i would but no drivers out there. this is a ML350 g3 incase anyone knows a way to make it work. any help would be apprecated or is there another way that can do this that im not looking at.

thanks

Edited January 2, 2007 by genebo