Microsoft has released Windows Media Player 9 RC1 for 98SE/Me/2000 and for Windows XP as seperate packages, the changes in the first release candidate are as follows:
- Media Link Use Media Link to email shortcuts to highlights from streamed news, presentations, home movies and more
- HighMAT CD Burning A new option for CD burning, HighMAT makes it easy to save personal digital music and video created on your PC to recordable discs that work seamlessly with next-generation consumer electronics devices
- Synchronized Lyrics support View or add your own synchronized lyrics to music files. Displayed as captions, synchronized lyrics are displayed in Now Playing and Full Screen modes
- Auto Playlist Enhancements Expanded support for more types of criteria when creating or editing Auto Playlists
- Performance improvements Continued optimizations improve startup time and media library performance dramatically over previous versions
- Usability Improvements Based on real feedback in newsgroups, many improvements have been made to areas including Mini-Player mode, Info Center View, Album Lookup, Queue-it-Up, and more