Using the Windows Media Player Control in a C++ Program
[The feature associated with this page, Windows Media Player SDK, is a legacy feature. It has been superseded by MediaPlayer. MediaPlayer has been optimized for Windows 10 and Windows 11. Microsoft strongly recommends that new code use MediaPlayer instead of Windows Media Player SDK, when possible. Microsoft suggests that existing code that uses the legacy APIs be rewritten to use the new APIs if possible.]
Note
Using C++ to embed the Windows Media Player control is supported for Windows Media Player 9 Series or later.
There are several different ways to use the Windows Media Player control in a C++ program. You can create an instance of the control in a console application, or you can embed the control in a Windows application. Also, you can implement interfaces that enable you to run an embedded Player control in remote mode. You can customize the user interface of an embedded control by applying a skin definition file.
This information is described in the following topics.
| Topic | Description |
|---|---|
| Using the Windows Media Player Control in a Console Application | Describes a simple C++ console application that instantiates the Windows Media Player control to display the version. |
| Hosting the Windows Media Player Control in a Windows Application | Describes how to use the ATL ActiveX host window to embed the Windows Media Player control in a Windows program. |
| Remoting the Windows Media Player Control | Describes how to embed the Windows Media Player control in a C++ program in remote mode, which lets your users undock the control to switch to the full mode of the Player. |
| Handling Events in C++ | Describes how to receive event notifications from Windows Media Player. |
| Using Skins with the Windows Media Player Control | Describes how to apply a skin file to a Windows Media Player control embedded in a C++ program. |
Note
You can embed the Windows Media Player 10 Mobile control in a Windows CE application. The techniques you use to do this are similar to those used with the desktop Windows Media Player control. However, there are differences between ATL for Windows and ATL for Windows CE. This documentation describes the differences between these implementations, where appropriate.
Related topics