Windows Media Player Light

Whenever Microsoft sends out a new version of their upcoming operating system Windows 7 to their partners they can be sure that someone will post information about it soon thereafter. Many screenshots of features of the new Windows 7 client have been posted a day ago which showed some of the new features and design changes that Microsoft made.

One of the more interesting aspects was Windows Media Player Light which was only briefly shown and mentioned in the information. Thankfully some additional information have come to light. A Windows Media Player Light video was posted that is showing Windows Media Player light in action.

One could think that the light version of the Windows Media Player is just the same unresponsive resource eating monster with hidden interface components but that is apparently not the case. Windows Media Player Light seems to open videos as fast as the alternative clients that experienced users use on Windows XP and Windows Vista. Clients like SMPlayer, MPlayer or VLC open videos instantly and it seems to be that Windows Media Player Light can compete on that level.

It would have been interesting if the light version does use less resources than the full version of Windows Media Player. Another question that surely comes up would be the compatibility of Windows Media Player Light. Does it have the same functionality as the normal version or can it be used exclusively to watch multimedia files on the computer without having access to playlists, skins or premium services.