How to play FLAC file with Windows Media Player 12

Anonymous
2009-12-30T20:15:31+00:00

Is there any way to play Flac files with Windows Media Player 12?  A hefty percentage of my music library is FLAC. 

Thanks!

Lloyd

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Music, photos, and video

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Anonymous
2010-01-05T15:56:49+00:00

Hello L Goldfine,

Thank you for your inquiry.

The Flac extension is not a supported file type of Windows Media Player. You may however user your favorite search engine to search for a solution that may convert the file to a Windows Media Player supported file type.

For more information on Windows Media Player supported file types you may also view the following link: 

Information about the Multimedia file types that Windows Media Player supports

I hope this information is helpful.

Thank you,

Mary

Microsoft Answers Support Engineer

Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-03-07T20:47:31+00:00

    you just need the right codecs. google (or whatever) klite codec pack and install that. be careful not to install the spam at the end of installation (only one, just hit 'decline'). the basic pack works fine for wmp 12.

    or, i used to shark007 codecs (i think that's what it was called). try that as an alternative

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-02-24T20:55:19+00:00

    keithsplace, thanks for the reply.  I originally asked about this topic when I was using a Vista OS WMP 9 (I think it was 9), but I've since upgraded to a new HP with Windows 10 and WMP 12, and WMP 12 as I'm sure you know, playes flac files without a problem.

    Small correction: it is only starting with Windows 10 that WMP supports FLAC out of the box. WMP 12 on earlier Windows versions still requires third-party codecs/plug-ins for FLAC support.

    As for a converter, I would recommend dBpoweramp.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-02-19T21:21:53+00:00

    I've tried using both with W10 as they are available but (at present at least) there seems to be a stability issue with both when using WMP to rip. That may just be a quirk of my pc of course - iTunes is fine for creating mp3 versions though. - R

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-02-19T18:10:36+00:00

    Russell Hi...

    sdittmar is spot on about the matter of file conversion... a word of caution about NCH too; a thorough scan of my old W7 laptop turned up some malware associated with the NCH stuff I had downloaded - that may have been bad luck but take note... The safest file converter is probably to use 'iTunes for Windows  - finding the settings requires a bit of familiarity but you can make mp3 files or Apple lossless files both of which work on WMP.

    You also asked about deselecting Groove...go to Control Panel - Programs - Default Programs - Set Defaults...

    when it has populated, select WMP in the LH pane and then associate all the main music file types with WMP - job done...  Regards, Ric.

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