Fortunately everything has propped early so I can tell you about the new toy to play with over the long weekend- Windows Media Player 11 Beta 2 w/ MTV's Urge music service, just in time for the MTV Video Music Awards ;).
The Windows Media Player 11 team has just shipped Beta 2 of Windows Media Player 11 via the Web. I've requested a changelist or at least the top 10 fix list but regardless, this is a must-have update for anyone running Beta 1, if even just for the performance improvements. A few more notes on what's changed:
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Fixing issues. Fixes have been made for issues that occurred in the first beta release of Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP.
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Additional online stores are now available. More online stores are available in this beta release of Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP. For a listing of online stores that are now available, see
Availability of online stores.
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Changes to sharing digital media content. The functionality of Windows Media Connect is now integrated into Windows Media Player 11 Beta 2 for Windows XP as the new Media Sharing feature, which lets you enjoy the contents of your Windows Media Player library from anywhere in your home. If you have a home network (wired or wireless), you can use Windows Media Player 11 to stream the contents of your library to networked devices such as Xbox 360 or other digital media receivers. For more information, go to
Digital Media at Home.
Note that digital media sharing is targeted for home users; therefore, computers that are joined to a domain might experience issues when trying to share digital media.
Download Link (note: Genuine Windows Validation required for install)