Windows Media Player Library: frequently asked questions

The Player 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 Player Library, click the Start button , click All Programs, and then click Windows Media Player.

If the Player is currently open and you’re in Now Playing mode, click the Switch to Library button in the upper-right corner of the Player.

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

To select a different category, click the name of the category in the navigation pane (for example, Pictures).

For more information about how to add content to the Player Library, see Add items to the Windows Media Player Library.

The Music, Videos, and Pictures libraries in Windows point to folders that store the actual media files on your computer. The Player Library simply contains links to the media files, but gives you greater control of how you organize and use your digital media content than the Windows folders do.

For information about libraries in Windows, see Working with libraries

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

If you want to re-create your current Player Library on another computer, you need to copy your digital media files to that computer. For more information about adding content to the Player Library, see Add items to the Windows Media Player Library.