Just having a bit of a clear out on my main PC at home and it suddenly occurred to me that I must be some sort of nerdy squirrel.  I don’t collect nuts though, no I collect software, I bury it away on my computer just in case one day I may need it.  Well winters coming again, I’m seriously analysing if I need a new computer or not and I thought maybe if I have a bit of a clear out I can hang the inevitable upgrade out a bit longer, or at least until Windows Vista is released.

So what have here?

Various video/media decoders Xvid, Divx, Windows Media , Real player!!!! yes you heard right the Real Player virus made it onto my machine, but hang on a minute haven’t they just been given hundreds of millions of Dollars from Microsoft and about to get into bed with them by bloating the already bulging MSN with more….more….words escape me to describe what they are going to bloat it with.  

This got me started on the subject,  I do love MSN Messenger and Spaces but since they broke Windows Media Player from version 10 onwards I have fallen out with the sight of the MSN logo.  Now I know I’ve lost you…let me explain.

In Media player ver 9 if I was playing some music I could select Info Centre View and it would display information about the song I was playing.  I could then drill down and read about the band or other records they have done.  Now since the version 10 upgrade instead of the excellent info centre it’s replaced with a MSN music shopping page trying to flog me "similar" music.  This wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the fact that often the music is often unrelated and they have the cheek to still call it Info Centre view.  It’s about as informative as your average FHM magazine article.  Ok lets put a Smashing Pumpkins track on, for no other reason than to prove a point.  Top tracks, Coldplay Gwen Stafani, Bruce Springsteen well if that’s the top recommendations lets see the others, Eminem????? Detinys Child  sorry I just don’t see the link.  I did have a hack that worked for a while but it eventually stopped working.

Well this is how bored I was tonight.  I’ve re worked the hack and I’ll show you how to get Media information back.

Lets first see what I don’t like.

1. Open Windows Media Player (WMP) and play some music from your library.  It doesn’t matter if you don’t have the Smashing Pumpkins Steps will do
2. Make sure View >> Now Playing Options >> Show Media Information is ticked.  If you cannot find the view menu look in the top right hand corner to access or enable menus.
3. You should get a small image of the album cover in a window click on this or right click the main window and choose Info Centre View.

This is now displaying the ghastly MSN store or whatever music store you currently have configured.

Follow these instructions, no matter how bizarre, to get the real info centre view.

1. Close Media Player.
2. Open Control Panel and choose Regional & Language Settings.
3. In the first drop down in Regional options change your current selection to Faeroese and click apply.
4. Open Media Player and the main window will say “No Online Stores”.
5. You can change your Regional Settings back now.
6. Double click on the small image of the album cover now and you should get the good old Info view with Album Info, Artist Info and Biographies.

Having information like this is one of the reason I love the Internet and connected smart client applications.  It’s just a shame when money grabbing antics spoil it, If I want to shop I’ll choose when I want to do it thank you…