Use Microsoft Media Player for your Windows XP apps

Windows XP’s original multimedia player, Microsoft Media Player 5.1, still remains on the operating system despite various updates (Windows Media Player 11 is the most current version of Microsoft’s multimedia player). While Microsoft Media Player is pretty basic by today’s standards, it still serves a purpose.

Microsoft Media Player can still play a number of multimedia file types such as AVI, WMA, WMV, MID, and WAV, so you may want to be able to use it in situations where you don’t need the full power of Windows Media Player. To use Microsoft Media Player, add it to the SendTo menu by following these steps:

1) Press [Windows]R to open the Run dialog box.
2) Type SendTo in the Open box and click OK.
3) When the SendTo folder appears, right-click the folder, and select the New | Shortcut command.
4) When the Create Shortcut wizard appears, type C:\Windows\system32\Mplay32.exe /Play in the text box and click Next.
5) Name the shortcut Microsoft Media Player and then click Finish.

Now when you encounter an AVI, WMA, WMV, MID, or WAV file and you just want to sample it, you can right-click the file and select the SendTo | Microsoft Media Player command.

Add a Create New Folder icon to the Windows XP Quick Launch toolbar

Creating new folders to store files is a basic Windows XP task, but
Windows Explorer does not have a button for easy creation of new folders.
You can create your own shortcut by adding a Create New Folder button to
the Quick Launch toolbar. Follow these steps:

1) Press [Windows]E to launch a new Windows Explorer window.
2) Navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\{Username}\Application
Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch. ({Username} is your account
name.)
3) Create a new folder in the Quick Launch folder and name it Create New
Folder. You will see a new button on the Quick Launch toolbar called
Create New Folder.
4) To create a new folder, hold down [Ctrl], drag the Create New Folder
icon from the Quick Launch toolbar, and drop it in the folder in which you
want to create a new folder. You will see a new folder, and the Create New
Folder icon will remain on the Quick Launch toolbar.