In WMP 10 and earlier versions, WMP remembered what view you were in when you closed WMP and opened back up where you left off - a great and expected behavior. WMP 11 does not do the same thing. It does not open where you left off when you closed it. To work around this shortcoming and get WMP 11 to open in your preferred view, you have to create a custom shortcut for each view - yes, this sucks.

To create a custom shortcut, find the shortcut that you use to open WMP. Right-click on the shortcut and choose Copy. Now, on your desktop, right-click and choose Paste. Now you have a starting point without having destroyed the original. Right-click on your new shortcut and choose Properties. You can view a Vista shortcut properties sample - Windows XP's is similar, just less tabs.

What we're interested in is the Target field. That contains the command line that starts WMP. The text box for the target is probably too small to show all of the text there but here's the full contents of my target field:

"C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmplayer.exe" /prefetch:1

To make WMP open in different views, we're going to add a new command line parameter named /Task like this:

"C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmplayer.exe" /prefetch:1 /Task NowPlaying

All you have to do is add the /Task NowPlaying portion to your own command line in the Target field and click OK to save the changes to your shortcut. Lastly, you might want to right-click on the shortcut, choose Rename, and rename your new shortcut something like WMP NowPlaying so that you can differentiate it from the default shortcuts.

You can find all kinds of other options for customizing your shortcut or command lines at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa386383.aspx

There are a few ways that your Windows Media Player library database can show unexpected duplicate entries for your music tracks.

Three common causes of duplicate entries are:

1. The most common cause is that Windows Media Player is telling you the truth: there are multiple copies of your files on your computer.
   
   It is common for backup files to be unexpectedly added to your library when upgrading to WMP 11 or upgrading to Vista. When upgrading, WMP 11 offers to scan your computer for media files. Most people, myself included, either do not carefuly read and consider that offer, or assume the offer means to search your existing media folders as were defined in your previous version of Windows Media Player. While the offer to search your computer seems clear enough, I guess it is just unexpected so it is not interpreted literally. And when the offer is accepted, all of your existing library tracks along with any backups or other tracks that you did not otherwise want in your library get added to your library.
   
   
2. Another cause might be what are known as reparse points. Reparse points are pointers to other folders, disks, or virtual disks that appear like file folders in your hard drive. If a reparse point points to a real folder, Windows Media Player may add the media once from the actual folder and again from that reparse point. The problem here is that if you delete one copy, you will delete both copies. If you are following the instructions below for troubleshooting duplicates, make sure you only delete the tracks from your library and not from your computer if you suspect or are unsure if the second entry is from a reparse point.
   
   
3. The third cause is that you may have a corrupted library database. If this is so, the only option is to rebuild the database which will, in the process, likely destroy any custom data you have added to your library. I know. This sucks. You can read the comments of one Microsoft employee who was a senior member of the WIndows Media Player product team in my blog post about my Metadata Backup program. On the same page, you can also read how to rebuild your corrupt library database.

A good troubleshooting method for identifying how and where the duplicates came to be in your library is to add the File Path column to your Songs (WMP 11) or All Music (WMP 10 or earlier) lists in the Library view of Windows Media Player. To add the File Path column, right-click on any existing column header.

In WMP 11, select Choose Columns from the context menu. From the list that pops up, check the box for the File Path column and click OK.

In WMP 10, when you right-click a column header, just click the File Path column name in the list if it is not already checked.

Now, with the File Path column displayed, click on the File Path column header to sort by File Path.  In WMP 10 and earlier, this sorting can take a few minutes.  With WMP 11, the sort is very fast. 

Now your files are listed ordered by location on your hard drive.  You will probably be able to see right away that some of the files are in your media library with a path similar to what I have on my PC for my media files:

C:\Documents and Settings\Dale\My Documents\My Music

On my PC, allowed to search my entire computer for music files, Windows Media Player might also find a set of music at

F:\BackupMusic

It would be clear by scrolling through my library in Windows Media Player while sorted on the File Path column, that I wanted to keep the first set in my library and remove the second set from the library. So I would click the first entry where the File Path included F:\BackupMusic and then scroll to the last track for which the File Path included F:\BackupMusic and, while holding the Shift key, I would click the last track. That would select all of the backup files. Now right-click on one of the selected files and choose Delete from the context menu.

Now you have a decision to make. If you want to keep the file on your PC but not in your library, choose to only delete the tracks from your library.  If you are sure the files are duplicates that you don't want to keep, choose to delete the tracks from your library and your computer. 

In WMP 10 and earlier versions, WMP displayed the total number of tracks in your currently displayed playlist, or your entire library, at the bottom of the displayed list of tracks.  The information displayed there included the total number of tracks, the total playing time of those tracks in hours:minutes:seconds, and the total file size of those tracks.

The Windows Media Player product team, apparently responding to an imagined but non-existent outcry from their customers, chose to remove the all of that information from the display of Windows Media Player.  Instead, now you have to trick Windows Media Player into telling you that useful information.

To see the total number of tracks in your library or a playlist with WMP 11, open the Library view and click on Songs (or the chosen playlist) at the left.  Now, single-click on any single track in the displayed list of tracks.  Next, on the keyboard, click CTRL-A and quickly look down toward the bottom of the window and to the right of the media controls.  You will, if you are quick enough, see the number of tracks displayed for just a few seconds.  If you miss it or if you need to see it again, click CTRL-A again.

Oh, and one more thing.  The Windows Media Player product team decided to only display the first 5000 tracks in your library upon opening Windows Media Player so you may see 5000 tracks displayed as the total count when you know you have more than 5000 tracks in your library.  To fix that, scroll to the bottom of your displayed list of tracks and press CTRL-A again.  If the total is still not what you expect, scroll again and press CTRL-A again until all of your tracks have been loaded.  Generally, I don't object to the initial 5000 track load - it improves the opening time for WMP - but it certainly highlights the seriousness of their decision to not display the total number of tracks properly based upon the library contents rather than on how many tracks you selected in your library.  And had the Windows Media Player product team used Microsoft's own free SQL Server 2005 Express Edition, the database performance would have been so much improved that there would have been no reason to only display the first 5000 tracks.

So, if you were quick enough to see the total number of tracks, you may also have noticed that the total time of the tracks is displayed as well.  For some unknown reason, the Windows Media Player product team thought it was necessary to truncate the playing time, removing the seconds in all cases, and in some cases - apparently when the number of hours exceeds some unidentified threshold - truncating the minutes as well.

If you want to get the last piece of missing information, the total file size, you will have to get out your 10-key adding machine with a couple extra rolls of paper.  Bring lunch.  You will have to go into Windows Explorer and track down every track or folder in your library and add the file sizes yourself.

There is one alternative method for getting the total tracks and time.  If you are listening to a playlist playing and then stop the playlist, the information will be displayed in the Media Information area at the top of the Now Playing list.  Why in the world the Windows Media Player product team thought it was a good idea to make their customers actually stop the player in order to see that bit of useful information is beyond me.

Often times, Windows Media Player users have problems adding MP3 files to their library, getting an error that says Windows Media Player could not read the file or get error C00D11B1 when trying to play the file. As stated in the online help for Windows Media Player, this can often be caused by compressed or defective ID3 tags in MP3 files. As Microsoft suggests, a good test is to remove the ID3 tags and see if the file will play then. I think the best 3rd-party tool to remove the tags is my own ID3 Tag Backup program.

Hidden under the Now Playing button on the toolbar at the top of Windows Media Player, there is a little down arrow that shows a context menu when clicked.  If you don't see the arrow, mouse over the toolbar button to reveal it.  Click the Show List Pane option to restore your Now Playing list.  Chalk this up as another example of the Windows Media Player team's failure in their attemp to "simplify" the user interface for Media Player.

Dell has updated drivers for SigmaTel sound chips installed on Dell PCs. I, and others, have successfully used those same Dell drivers for SigmaTel chips on Intel and other motherboards. Along with the drivers, there is a settings change sometimes required. Read more about both at this Dell support forum article.