Windows Media Player 7.1

If you are running Windows XP you will already have Windows Media Player 7.1 on your system. But Windows 98, ME and 2000 users should upgrade if they use the software, as it has some nice new features.

Windows Media Player can handle most popular audio and video formats, and comes complete with extensive internet radio listings and music guide.

It incorporates the impressive WMA8 audio encoding, often cited as being superior quality than MP3 yet with smaller file sizes - although in our experience it may be better quality but file sizes tend to be larger.

It also has integrated CD recording facilities, for storing CD tracks as digital copies on your PC. These copies have licences attached to them however, which registers them with your PC and a portable device you may have. This means they cannot be played on any other device.

Smart Transcode support ensures that transferring audio files to a portable media device is as easy as breathing - great for the uninitiated.

Whatever you want to play/view, Windows Media Player is likely to handle it, and once you have it installed there is no need for any other player.

It is, however, a bloated program that can hog resources, particularly on machines with a low specification.