Hello everyone! Im a frequent user of the Windows Media Player that Windows 2000 comes with, and it seems with all the competition coming from Apple's QuickTime and Real Networks's RealOne, that Microsoft is now constantly releasing a new version of its Media Player to compete. To me though the appearance (look) of the player has definitely improved, the player's quality is starting to decrease. Windows Media Player 9 series Release Candidate is the current download available, ive tried it and its loading with too much unneccessary crap, (security, cookies,) and whole bunch of bull that occurs before getting to the point of playing media. WMP9 also though getting close to its final release version, is very buggy, and I can tell I still havent been able to stream video through it, and i have a LAN intranet connection. WMP9 also have on my computer at least; a hard time running video in full screen mode something that Windows Media Player 7.1 and 6.4 had no trouble at doing. You might think then why am Im using 9 anyways, because WMP 6.4 is too old now, and most sites only support WMP 7 and up. Windows 2000 cant get Windows Media Player 8 because its only for XP. So I thought! Well after thinking back to the day Microsoft finally released a full upgrade for Windows Media Player 6.4, I was still using Windows 2000, Windows ME was just coming out to the markets and I anchustly tried out the upgrade that my WMP 6.4 informed me of, after installation I was impressed, and in awe of Windows Media Player 7, and how it totally changed and improved upon the old 6.4 version. Two weeks later, another update message came claiming my Media Player was old, and new version was out Windows Media Player 7.1. After the update, I continued to use the player not noticing what was changed. Strangely though I never could find the download for just Windows Media 7.0. A year later Windows XP was released with a new Media Player version 8.0. I was excited, and then disappointed to find out WMP 8.0 was only for XP (that sucked). As of the present, I set out looking for the original WMP 7.0 to download, and was supprise to find an actutal version still available of 7.0, not only that but a version of 8.0 too! Yes indeed, this version is real Windows Media Player 8.0 installer outside of XP, and I installed it on Windows 2000. Questioning myself (what, how)! I later figured that this version was probably offered to the Windows XP beta testers (remember Windows Whistler now XP) Though I didnt install the version 7 I found I am more than happy of finding a version 8 installer. You could find the site I got mines from here: http://www.google.com/search?q=Windows+Media+Player+7.0+or+7.1&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=gw Its a google search, the site is listed as ???-?????-??, just hit the catch link, and those precious rare players 7.0, 8.0 are there waiting to be downloaded.

Sorry, but your link didn't work for me...

Here is another catch link to the site. The link is catched because the web page (which is in japanese) is very old. http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:_MQ6E9ZwFVQC:soft.shangdu.com/query/ Place that link in your Address bar, and hit the GO button. Even though the site in Japanese you can still make out the programs at the bottom in plain english. Windows Media Player 7.0 Build 1956 (original WMP 7.0) Media Player 8.0 Beta 2 for Win2K ( WMP 8.0 pre-XP Whistler release)