How to install Windows Media Player 9 along side WMP11?

[dan_aka_jack]

Hi there,

I have an XP system which has Windows Media Player 11 installed. I'd like to install WMP 9 side-by-side with WMP11. Is there any way to do this? I've tried downloading WMP9 from Microsoft but the installer complains that a more recent version of WMP is already installed and the installer exits.

Why would I want WMP9, you may ask. Well, I'm a video production guy. One of my corporate clients runs WMP9 and they are finding that some of my videos don't play correctly in WMP9 (but the videos play fine on all my computers running WMP11). So I want a system which runs WMP9 so I can test my videos on WMP9. You know - a bit like a web developer testing their designs on IE6.

Thanks,
Jack

 

[dan_aka_jack]

Hmm... it turns out that "Virtual Windows XP" in Win7 has WMP9 installed so I can run WMP9 within Virtual Windows XP on my Win7 box. But this isn't ideal because the video playback on Virtual Windows XP is very stuttery. So I'd still love to find a way to install WMP9 along side WMP11 on either my XP laptop or my Win7 workstation.

 

[Amp34]

You sure that's not what your clients are talking about?

 

[dan_aka_jack]

You sure that's not what your clients are talking about?

Yup, certain. The problem they see is that some of the clips play the audio fine but only show a vertical stripe for the video.

The videos which work for my client don't stutter.

I'm 99.9% sure that the stuttering I'm seeing when running WMP9 on Virtual XP is due to the fact my host system (Win7) displays the guest system (WinXP) using Remote Desktop Protocol

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Virtual_PC#Windows_XP_Mode

 

[lcg]

The Windows XP Mode uses emulated graphics drivers, hence the video stuttering. This is just like any other virtual machine.