Introduction
Windows video, or Windows Media Video, is the video format for all Windows Media Players. Windows Video is based on the video format ASF, or Microsoft Advanced Systems Format, and the ASF contains video and it compresses into the Windows video in order to play the video codec. Windows video comes in three formats: WMV7, WMV8 and the latest version, WMV9. The three versions of the Windows video deals with video quality. WMV9 is the latest Windows video and it deals with High-definition or HD video files.
Although Windows Media Player does play Windows Video, other media players, such as KMPlayer plays Windows video. Other media players that can play Windows video are VLC Media Player, MPlayer, Media Player Classic, and RealPlayer. You can play a Windows video that you have saved on your computer on a media player of your choice. There are several ways you can play a Windows video on your PC. You can use one or all these methods on how to play Windows video when you want to watch the video.
Step 1
Search for the Windows video on your computer. When you have a Windows video file, every video format comes with an extension. An extension is the the abbreviated name of the video file. The extension comes after the name of the video. For example, JasonMraz.wmv would be the name of the Windows video. WMV is the extension for Windows Video. You can search for the WMV on your computer in two ways.
Step 2
Press "Start" button on your keyboard and then type in "WMV" in the "search programs and files" search field and then press "Enter." Wait for the results to show up. When you see your a file with the .wmv extension, press and hold the left mouse button and then drag the Windows Video to Windows Media Player. Make sure you have Windows Media Player already open.
Step 3
Go to "Start" menu and then click "Computer." Type in "WMV" in the search, located at the top right of the screen. Press "Enter" to see the search results. You have a couple of ways to play a Windows video in this situation. You can either click on the Windows video and click the option on the toolbar that says, "Open with" and then you select "Windows Media Player" or you right-click the WMV and select "Play in Windows Media Player." Windows Media Player will open automatically. Sometimes, Windows Media Player cannot play your WMV file because of a missing video codec or another error. This is when you go online and download another media player that plays Windows video. It is a good idea to have more than one media player.
Step 4
Download a media player, such as KMPlayer from Download.com. Type in "KMPlayer" at the top of the screen on Download.com's website. Type it in the search box. You should see KMPlayer as the number one result. Download and install KMPlayer and then open the program from your desktop.
Step 5
Click on the triangle in KMPlayer and then search for the WMV. Open the Windows Video and it will play in KMPlayer.
