Microsoft is releasing a major update to its Zune software and online service, and it couldn't have come soon enough.

Most of the headlines will probably focus on Microsoft adding downloadable shows, such as "South Park" and "The Office," to the Zune Marketplace for $1.99--sorry, that's 160 Microsoft Points. (No, they're still not adopting conventional currency. Argh.)

And in my discussions with the Zune team, they seem to be most excited about the new social features. For instance, your friends' Zune cards will now appear on your Zune device, where you'll be able to see what they've been listening to recently and even play those songs if you have a Zune Pass subscription. Of course, the playlist feature's always been really buggy for me--as I write this, the playlist on the right side of my profile here is 13 days old, and I've listened to many songs since then and synced several times. But I suppose these social features could eventually give Microsoft a leg up against the iPod, if they can get them all working properly and keep adding ways to discover new music. For instance, I'm not a Zune Pass subscriber, but I'd still love to be able to sample songs on my friends' playlists directly on my Zune (Microsoft says the content owners put the kibosh on this idea) and then download them wirelessly from the Marketplace (wireless downloads aren't yet available).

TV and social improvements aside, I'm actually happiest about the basic fixes that Microsoft is making to the Zune PC software. As I've mentioned--and CNET's Molly Wood recently wrote about--one of the biggest problems with Zune has been the software. The first version, based on the Windows Media Player and released in 2006, was actually more useful than the client they wrote from scratch and released a year later. In other words, the upgrade was, in some respects, a downgrade.

I haven't had a chance to test it yet--the software update will flow automatically to my PC some time tonight--but Microsoft promises the following :

Metadata editing--it'll be much easier for users to change things like artists' names and genres from within the Zune software. (This was my biggest complaint about the 2007 software update--I actually had to download another app, MP3Tag, to get the job done.)

Automatic playlists--you'll be able to create playlists (like "all songs added since 1/1/2008) that update automatically as you add new songs--a feature iTunes has had forever, and that Microsoft removed in the 2007 update.

Sort by genre--another removed feature that's been restored. Gapless playback on both the software (a longstanding iTunes standard) and the device itself (the latest iPods also have this, but the Shuffle and my 4th generation iPods don't).

Sync improvements--the software can now sync content to multiple Zunes simultaneously, and create separate sync lists for each device.

There are other improvements in the software as well, including better integration between the PC client and the online social community. As soon as I get the software, I'll post some hands-on impressions.

If you face any kind of problem with your computer then go for Computer Repair

source:cnet

In this article I will give you some explanation as to why Windows Media Player cannot be removed from Windows Vista, now Windows Vista is Microsoft's latest operating system and with their push for more entertainment options within the operating system the decision was taken to keep Windows Media Player stuck into the memory!

When Windows Vista was first released back in January 2007 and the key thing that Microsoft had really pushed in my opinion besides the new security layer was the new fresh look to all media, including Windows Media Center.

Windows Media Player 11 was drastically improved throughout initial beta release of Windows Vista, and overall I can say that the software is very well crafted on the Vista Platform.
Now this whole business of Windows Media Player being the default media player in the Windows operating system has actually got Microsoft into trouble for being anticompetive against others in the market such as Real and iTunes.

In fact a recent ruling from the European Commision made sure that Microsoft offer a new version of Windows Vista, called Windows Vista N. Now this version simply has no Windows Media Player 11 included.

But the one point I wanted to make was for the legitimate users who are having problems with Windows Media Player 11, now I was helping a user just recently and they were explaining to me how they were missing some .dll files (for those of you who may not be familiar with .dll don't worry it just meant nothing was going to work). So anyway my usual recommendation naturally would have been to say "Reinstall Windows Media Player to collect those .dll files back into the Windows Registry".

Now the most promising thing I can reassure you is that Microsoft let's you install any other media software you want, so you will never be stuck with just Windows Media Player on your system, but hey for most of you I am sure it does a great job with your media files.
So the main reason Microsoft really wouldn't let you uninstall it was simply because they saw a large percentage of the market using it heavily, and in my opinion this is what made them keep it on.

If you have or face any kind of problem with Windows Vista or Windows Media Player then go for Microsoft Help.

source:windows-media-player-updates