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I am battling to install Windows Media Player 11 on Wine. I have tried the following:

  1. Open a Terminal (Applications, Accessories, Terminal) and type "sudo apt-get install wine." This installs Wine Windows Emulator, a free application that allows you to run many Windows programs within Linux.

  2. Download Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP (link in Resources) and save it to Ubuntu's desktop. Once downloaded, right-click and select "Open with Wine Windows Emulator." Follow the on-screen prompts for installing it to your system.

  3. Go to "Applications" then "Wine," select "Programs" and open "Windows Media Player." Click "File" then "Open" and locate a DRM file you want to play. Select "OK" to load it into Media Player.

I installed Wine (Which is step 1).

But I am having problems with step 2 (Download Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP (link in Resources) and save it to Ubuntu's desktop). I'm just not finding a way to do it.

I may be overlooking the (link in Resources) Can't find it.

I am stuck!

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  • Just out of interest what did you need thats in windows media player that's not supported by one of the many full featured native media players available for ubuntu?
    – trampster
    Commented Oct 7, 2010 at 0:06
  • @trampster WMP-on-Wine was my suggestion for playing DRM-encumbered WMV files.
    – Oli ♦
    Commented Oct 7, 2010 at 8:10
  • @ Trampster...Videos streamed from the website kuduclub.co.za
    – namkid
    Commented Oct 8, 2010 at 7:09
  • How did you manage to skip the Genuine Advantage check WMP11 has in the beginning. Using PlayOnLinux or Wine (Or even trying to do it in VirtualBox) throws me a "What the hell man, you got some illegal $!@# here".
    – Luis Alvarado
    Commented Nov 30, 2011 at 23:46
  • By the way, I got around DRM by burning the offending WMV files to a CD, and then ripping them using Asunder. I don't recall the details of the process, but it worked extremely well, and now I can play everything in Ubuntu without any problems at all.
    – Kelley
    Commented Dec 1, 2011 at 0:33

5 Answers 5

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This is a Half-Answer. I say half since you will not be able to visualize the theme of WMP11 but you will be able to play music and videos (Videos in this case only in fullcreen). If this is something you think solves the problem then accept, if not (Most likely will not since it is a weird way of installing it) then feel free to comment on it.

(Tested on my PC a laptop and in a last sorry excuse for PC just to make sure the procedure can repeat itself)

Steps to install Windows Media Player:

Pre-Requesites:

  • Have Wine 1.3.33+
  • Have winecfg opened all the time since you will be using it a lot.
  • Configure winecfg in the video tab to a virtual window. In my case I set this at 1024x768.
  • Configure winecfg to use Windows 2003
  • No need to configure any libraries
  • Pray to the Flying Spaghetti Monster and let yourself be touched by his noodly appendage

After all that is made (I also have PlayOnLinux installed. I mention it just in case POL installed something in Wine and I did not notice or didn't tell me about it ^^) we can proceed with WMP11:

  1. Download the WMP11 version for Windows XP (I only tested this one. It is about 25MB)
  2. Having winecfg already opened and configure to emulate a virtual desktop of at least 1024x768 (So to not use fullscreen) open a terminal in Ubuntu (Outside wine) and go where the WMP11 executable is.
  3. Run wine wmp11-windowsxp-x86-enu.exe where the downloaded installer is. At this point winecfg should be configure in Windows 2003 mode. You will get the welcome screen, click on validate and wait for it. In Windows 2003 mode it will skip validation and go to the EULA. DO NOT ACCEPT THE EULA YET!.
  4. Go to the winecfg window (which both should be sharing, winecfg and WMP11) and change the system from Windows 2003 to XP. Save it but don't close winecfg yet.
  5. Continue with the installation of WMP11.
  6. You have a chance of finishing the installation with no problem, but if it hangs (Which probably will) in 25%, 50%, 75% do not worry. Just go to the terminal that you used wine to execute wmp11 and press CTRL+C. After that, just in case type wineserver -k to kill any remaining wine related processes.
  7. Repeat steps 3 through 5 until the installation finishes completely remembering that to start WMP11 you need to have winecfg configured to Windows 2003 and after the validation, change it back to Windows XP to continue the installation.
  8. Assuming you got to the end of the installation it will ALWAYS say "You have failed!. The installation went wrong and did not survive. Kitties will die". Do not worry about the "did not complete part" at the end of the installation. It actually finished. At least looking from a functionality perspective.
  9. Go to the WMP11 folder inside the wine directory where the installer "installed" the WMP folder. Setup winecfg for Windows XP and run wmplayer.exe (You can run it from Nautilus). In my case it is in /home/cyrex/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Windows Media Player. Remember to not close winecfg since we are not done yet with it.

  10. WMP11 will open but it will be horrible as seen here:

    enter image description here

    Press Enter 4 or 5 times to accept something that you can not see. I do not remember how many. Just do 5 and that should be enough.

  11. Again, close WMP11. run wineserver -k just to make sure.

  12. Change winecfg from Windows XP to Windows 7.

  13. Open wmplayer.exe again. This time you should see a little bit more stuff like here:

    enter image description here

  14. And one last time, close WMP11. run wineserver -k and change winecfg from Windows 7 to FINALLY Windows XP where it will remain. NOW you can close winecfg.

That is all. The option to run WMP11 can be found in the Open With option when right clicking in Nautilus, as seen here:

enter image description here

You can hear music, add mp3 lists and hear all songs from the list as shown here:

enter image description here

Lastly you CAN see a movie but you need to make it fullscreen to see it. Just press ALT+ENTER for fullscreen. The menu below while fullscreen will not work, instead just right click the video and the context menu should help. As shown here:

enter image description here

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    Oh God -.- +1 for the effort!
    – Bruno Pereira
    Commented Dec 4, 2011 at 0:36
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The only link I can find at the moment is through Microsoft. Unfortunately it requires you jump through the Windows Genuine Advantage nonsense so you either need a legit XP machine nearby (a VirtualBox install should do) or Google skills I don't have to find an alternative.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=1d224714-e238-4e45-8668-5166114010ca

Even then, you have a fight with Wine ahead of you. Depending on the power of your computer, it may well just be simpler to run XP in VirtualBox when you want to play encrypted WMV video.

If you have a powerful computer and you spend some time stripping XP down (through nlite, etc) as I have, it shouldn't take more than a few seconds to boot.

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  • Will get back to you!...thnxs
    – namkid
    Commented Oct 8, 2010 at 7:17
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According to http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10219 the Installer for WMP 11 does not try to test WGA if the Windows version is set to Vista. You can check this in winecfg (Applications->Configure Wine). The latest test results show that there might be problems installing this way, but those test results are rather old -- I suggest trying the latest wine1.3 package in the PPA if you run into problems.

There are also some other possible workarounds in the bug report there.

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  • Will get back to you!...Thanxs
    – namkid
    Commented Oct 8, 2010 at 7:17
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    It passed the check with Wine 1.7.22 and Windows XP!
    – John Scott
    Commented Aug 1, 2014 at 22:19
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According to WineDB Windows Media Player 11 cannot run properly using wine.

It has been rated as garbage meaning that even if you can make it run it will not be stable / usable.

Has an alternative I recommend you use Windows Media Player 10 which should install and work (with limited abilities) using wine.

You can download Windows Media Player 10 directly from Microsoft here.

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  • I do not know if I should disagree or not. Am basing my thought in that I can play WMP10 and 9 with no problems. I don't think Microsoft (Am lying I do) would focus on creating the new version and make it very different than it previous 2 just to bug people. Just my 1 Cent (The other cent is for drinks)
    – Luis Alvarado
    Commented Nov 30, 2011 at 23:56
  • @LuisAlvarado I am not the one saying it, look specially at the guy using Mint 11, installs: no, but has workarounds; runs: no. He is not the only one saying it. Dont make me try to install WMP11 just to proof those guys correct! :)
    – Bruno Pereira
    Commented Nov 30, 2011 at 23:59
  • @LuisAlvarado Also confirmed from the guys in codeweavers, the polished version of wine. I rest my case.
    – Bruno Pereira
    Commented Dec 1, 2011 at 0:04
  • @All - I will proof it works. Just give me 5 years.
    – Luis Alvarado
    Commented Dec 1, 2011 at 0:11
  • @LuisAlvarado ah! not in a life time! :P
    – Bruno Pereira
    Commented Dec 1, 2011 at 0:14
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Try this...

Go to Frostwire, type in Windows Media Player 11 (or 10, or 12.....).

  • Download one of the search results..an .exe file, (or .zip or .rar file if you like doing things the hard way).
  • When the download is finished, locate the downloaded .exe file
  • right click and choose "open with wine program loader".
  • Follow the prompts, and install WMP.
  • Finished. Maybe 6 or 8 mouse clicks, no typing and no knowledge required.

Works for me. Of course, WHY anybody would want to use WMP is beyond me, but it does work.

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  • What is frostwire? How does one get to frostwire ... and why should I trust it? There might be better places to download such an exe...?
    – jmunsch
    Commented Nov 14, 2014 at 16:20

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