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Contents
Player display areas and controls
Windows Media Player consists of two primary areas: an inner area that displays video content and information about the file being played, and an outer area that houses the player controls.
The inner area contains the following display areas:
- Title area. Displays the song title and artist name, if available.
- Video area. Displays the video content, if any, of the file that is playing.
- Banner area. Displays advertisements, if available.
- Caption area. Displays captions, if available.
- Status area. Displays any of the following: the current status of the Player (for example, connecting, buffering, playing, or paused); the elapsed time of the file playing; and content information such as the album or show title, artist or author name, song or clip title, and copyright.

The following controls appear in the outer area.
This control |
Does this |
Window Shade button
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Hides the video area. |
Media Guide button
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Launches your Web browser and displays the WindowsMedia.com Media Guide, a resource that highlights noteworthy audio and video content in Windows Media Format. The button appears in the Status area. |
Rewind button
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Rewinds the file, if applicable. |
Seek bar
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Indicates the progress of the current file. When the Seek bar is available, you can drag its progress indicator to select a place in the file to start playing. |
Fast Forward button
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Fast-forwards the file, if applicable. |
Play button
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Begins playing the open digital media file. By default, a file begins playing automatically when you open it. When a file is playing, the Play button becomes the Pause button except if you are playing a streaming file of a live event. |
Pause button
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Pauses the open digital media file. To resume, click Play. When a file is not playing (that is, the file is either paused or stopped), the Pause button becomes the Play button. |
Stop button
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Stops playing the current file. Clicking Stop does not close the file or your connection to a server. |
Previous button
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Plays the previous file, if applicable. |
Next button
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Plays the next file, if applicable. |
Mute button
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Turns the audio content of the file on and off. |
Volume slider
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Controls the volume level of the content you are viewing. |
Size box
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Controls the size of the Player and the video area. |
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