# Windows Media Player 11 database



## MWE (Mar 21, 2005)

I am exploring various media players to try and find one that is best for my needs. In examining Windows Media Player 11 (WMP11), I have several questions:
1) WMP11 seems unable to gather music files from anywhere other than My Documents directories. I do not store "data" on the C drive and do not use My Documents for anything. Rather I use a drive partition setup tuned over many years of computer use. In particular, all digital media files are on drive "Q" in appropriate directories. How do I tell WMP11 to look there?
2) WMP11 maintains meta data about the music files in some sort of database (the "library"). Does WMP11 support multiple libraries? Does WMP11 support user-specified library locations?
3) WMP11 wants to "monitor" folders; does this mean that any file copied into a monitored folder is automatically added to the WMP11 library? If so, are those files tagged in some way so the next time WMP11 starts up, the user knows that these files have been added since the last WMP11 session?

Thanks


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## smooth (Sep 26, 2005)

On your first question, you can do what I do. I have all of my data on a partition D:

So what I do is go to Start, and right click on the "My Documents" icon, and select properties. There should be a spot where it asks for a target. In my case, I type in D: 

That way My Documents is seen as D: instead of the default place in Windows.


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## MWE (Mar 21, 2005)

smooth said:


> On your first question, you can do what I do. I have all of my data on a partition D:
> 
> So what I do is go to Start, and right click on the "My Documents" icon, and select properties. There should be a spot where it asks for a target. In my case, I type in D:
> 
> That way My Documents is seen as D: instead of the default place in Windows.


Thanks for the reply. I know about moving My Documents to another location/target. I do not want to do that. I have developed a partitioning/directory/file scheme over many years (predates PCs) that works quite well and allows me to have different types of data where I want it and maintain historical consistency. I readily admit that I still follow many of the "rules" from 20 years ago about separation of executables and data, directory and file locations, # of children for any parent, naming conventions, etc.

To me, it is unacceptable for an application to force me to have data where it wants.

Thanks for the thoughts.


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## smooth (Sep 26, 2005)

I see what you mean. Hopefully someone with more knowledge can come in and tell you a better way  Good luck with it


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## scotsd01 (Sep 9, 2007)

Can't you open WMP11 

click on 'library'
click 'More Options'
Click the 'Library' tab
click 'monitor folders'

you can tell it wherever you have files...seems like a solution to me


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## MWE (Mar 21, 2005)

scotsd01 said:


> Can't you open WMP11
> 
> click on 'library'
> click 'More Options'
> ...


thanks for the reply. For some reason I was not able to get that approach to work a few days ago, but it seems to be working now (probably user error).

This recent exploration also answered question #3. It appears that "monitor" does not mean anything "dynamic", rather it is just a list of folders to be scanned for content when the user requests it. It is an interesting approach vs the method of specifying selected directories and files for a given add. Both methods have there benefits and drawbacks. An ideal approach would be to give the user the ability to select how all this is done:
a) certain user definable folders are always searched when the player starts and at any point when the user asks for this to be done
b) user defined folders can be identified temporarily when the user asks to add tracks to the library

Also, the "Recently Added" function does not work as I would expect, i.e., it keeps the "recently added" knowledge for just the balance of a session. A preferred approach would be to keep such information for a user-specified amount of time, so when the player is run a day or two later, some "log" of previous adds is available. This suggests a better approach: "Recent Changes" which would display adds and deletes.

Any thoughts on question #2, i.e., multiple meta data libraries and location of those libraries?

Many thanks for your reply; WMP11 is now back in the running.


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