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Applies to these editions of Windows Vista:

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Watch visualizations while playing your music

With Windows Media Player, you can watch different visualizations—splashes of color and geometric shapes—whose patterns move with the music that you are playing. Visualizations are grouped into collections that are based on specific themes, such as Ambience or Bars. Some visualizations may have different appearances, depending on the display mode of the Player (full, mini Player, full-screen, or skin). For more information about modes, see Switch between display modes. Note that not all visualizations can be viewed in full screen. The Player includes a number of visualizations. You can also download more visualizations from the Internet.

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To watch a visualization in full mode

  1. Begin playing a song.

  2. Click the Now Playing tab, click the arrow below the tab, point to Visualizations, point to a visualization collection, and then click the name of the visualization that you want to watch.

    Note that as your music plays, you can press CTRL and click the window at the same time to see the next visualization or press SHIFT+CTRL and click the window simultaneously to see the previous visualization in a visualization collection. To view the visualization in full screen, double-click the Video and Visualization pane or press ALT+ENTER. The Player will return to full mode if you click once in the full-screen visualization. Note that not all visualizations can be viewed in full screen.

To watch a visualization in mini Player mode

  1. In mini Player mode, begin playing a song.

  2. In the upper-right corner of the Player, click the Show Video and Visualization window button Picture of the Show Video and Visualization window button to start viewing the visualization. The last visualization that you viewed appears.

  3. While viewing a visualization, you can do any of the following:

    • To scroll to the next visualization, click the window.

    • To scroll to the previous visualization, press SHIFT and click the window.

    • To jump to the next collection of visualizations, press CTRL and click the window.

    • To jump to the previous collection, press SHIFT+CTRL and click the window.

To download visualizations from the Internet

  1. Start the Player and connect to the Internet.

  2. Click the arrow below the Now Playing tab, point to Visualizations, and then click Download Visualizations.

    The Visualizations for Windows Media Player webpage appears.

  3. Follow the instructions on the webpage for downloading a visualization. To install a visualization, you must be logged on as an administrator or a member of the Administrators group.

To stop viewing visualizations

  • Click the arrow below the Now Playing tab, point to Visualizations, and then click No Visualization.

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