Windows Essentials Codec Pack

The Windows operating system supports playing a lot of multimedia file formats. Unfortunately, many of them require an external codec to be able to play and also a dedicated player. The problem is knowing what codec or media player is necessary for a certain file format. Knowing the format of the file is not enough for finding out the codec it needs. So it's a lengthy and difficult task. Fortunately, there is a solution to this problem, Windows Essentials Codec Pack. As the name clearly states, this is a codec pack that includes everything a user needs to play the majority of media files, audio and video. The pack also includes the Media Player Classic, which is a remake of the default media player included in older version of Windows.

The software is not difficult to install, but requires a little bit of attention from the user, especially if he's a beginner, as he should decide which codecs he wants to install and especially, if he want the Babylon toolbar added to his browser. If not, one should deselect that option. Windows Essentials Codec Pack is compatible with all versions of Microsoft Windows and should be installed especially in older versions of Windows, where the codecs installed by default are very few. The system requirements depend on the media file played, for example a video file with a greater resolution requires a better CPU.

The pack includes some configuration for the installed codecs, as the user can choose to use the new ones for playing a certain type of file or he can use the already installed codec. Besides this, the pack includes some options for configuring the playback of video files, for example de-interlacing or setting a noise filter.

Included in the pack is the Media Player Classic, a media player that, in spite of its simple interface, it's very versatile and stable and can play many types of files without any problems. Also, because it has a basic interface, the system resources used are extremely low.

Windows Essentials Codec Pack includes an update features that automatically checks all the installed codecs and, if it's necessarily, updates them to the latest version.