Windows Media Player library: frequently asked questions

The library is the location in the Player that lists all of the music, videos, and pictures on your computer. It lets you easily find and play your digital media files, as well as choose content that you want to burn to a CD or sync to a portable music player.

To display your library, start the Player, and then click the Library tab.

When you click the Library tab, the Player displays the media category you viewed last (for example, the Music category). You can view the other kinds of media in your library by selecting a different media category, such as Pictures, Video, or Recorded TV.

To select a different category, click the Select a category button , and then click the category you want to view (for example, Pictures).

The Select a category button is located near the top-left corner of the Player (just below the Back and Forward buttons). The button icon changes depending on which category is currently selected (for example, when the Music category is selected, the icon looks like a musical note).

To learn how to add content to your library, see Add items to the library.

The Music, Videos, and Pictures folders in Windows contain the actual files on your computer, while the Player library simply contains links to those files. The library gives you greater control of how you organize and use your digital media content than the Windows folders do.

The library is a database that contains links to the digital media files on your computer. It does not contain your actual digital media files or copies of your digital media files. To find out where the items listed in your library are actually stored on your computer, see the procedure about finding where a file in your library is stored on your computer in Find items in the library.

The library is a database that includes links to the digital media files on your computer. Among other reasons, you can't move the library from one computer to another because the links in the database would no longer be correct.

If you want to replicate your current library on another computer, you need to copy your digital media files to that computer and then add those files to the new library. For more information about adding content to your library, see Add items to the library.