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Which Codecs do I have installed ?

Martin Brinkmann — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 08:40:40 +0000

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.

Open the Windows Control Panel and click on Sounds And Audio Device Properties. Select the Hardware tab from the new window and take a look at the Devices entry. It lists, among other things, Audio Codecs and Video Codecs. Select one of the two and click on the Properties button in the lower right corner.

Another window opens called Video Codecs Properties and you can take a look at all installed codecs by clicking on the Properties tab. While this is a nice way to see a list of all installed codecs on a system it does not help much if you need more information, for example the location of the codec on your hard drive.

I’m normally using a software called Avi Codec to compile all relevant information about installed audio and video codecs on my system. The main benefit of this tool is that it lists the path of the codec on the hard drive which makes it easier to locate and remove unnecessary codecs.

List all installed multimedia codecs

Martin Brinkmann — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 09:37:30 +0000

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.

The main purpose of Installed Codecs is to be able to find out which codecs that have been installed lately are interfering with other codecs that have already been installed on the PC. This can be done by sorting the codecs chronologically and disabling those that have been installed lately.

Some understanding of video and audio codecs is helpful as well because it would not make sense to disable audio codecs when analyzing a video playback problem.

Installed Codec does not have to be installed and can be run from any place. It takes a few seconds before the list of all installed codecs is populated. A right-click opens a menu with options to enable and disable codecs, save items and create html reports.

The location of the installed codec is mentioned in the properties as well which makes it easy to delete it instead of just disabling it. Installed Codec is compatible with Windows XP, Windows 2000 and Windows Vista.

Installed Codec