Do you know which audio and video codecs are installed on your operating system ? Did you know that you can easily find that out by using Windows tools ? I think it is nice to know that you can find about all installed codecs without having to use third party applications. I will recommend a third party program at the end which can be used to received additional information.
Check for and add missing Video Codecs
I do not like Codec packages. You may ask why that is the case and my answer would be that they tend to install more than is needed to run the videos on your computer. There are also lots of fake codec packages out there that install viruses and trojans on your system.
List all installed multimedia codecs
Listing all installed multimedia codecs is an easy task if you use the software Installed Codec from Nirsoft. The software scans the registry in two places looking for installed codecs displaying them afterwards in a list that can be sorted in a few different ways.
DIVX All In One Fix
If you experience troubles playing movies using the DIVX codec that is installed on your computer you might want to take a look at a bundle of fixes for DivX that is called All In One Fix. This is not intended for users who use ffdshow for instance to play movies, only for those who are actually using the DIVX codec.
Find out which codec is missing for playback
It happens sometimes that you download a video clip from the internet and have troubles playing that movie on your computer. This problem is most of the time codec related, one indication would be a black screen or no sound after hitting play. One solution, which is not that perfect, would be to install a so called codec pack and hope that the coded that is needed for playback is included in that pack.
