Microsoft Locks Mpeg4 H264 Codecs In Windows 7

Martin | Mar 27, 2009 | View Comments

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Windows 7 will support various popular multimedia codecs like Mpeg4, H.264 or AAC out of the box which reduces the codec finding troubles that some users experience when trying to play certain multimedia files in the Windows operating system. A Directshow developer for the ffdshow tryouts application took a closer look at how Windows 7 uses those codecs and discovered that Microsoft seems to have locked the use of alternative decoders in Windows Media Center and Windows Media Player for both the Mpeg4 and H264 format.

Even worse than this is that there is no way to override those locked codecs since those preferred codecs are owned by the TrustedInstaller user in the Windows Registry which means it is not possible to edit the settings even as a Windows 7 admin. The test has been conduced on build 7057 of Windows 7. The researcher thinks that it is unlikely that Microsoft will change the behavior in the soon to be released Windows 7 Release Candidate.

One reason for the protection of those codecs in Windows Media Center and Windows Media Player could be compatibility reasons. Third party multimedia players on the other hand are not affected or limited in any way by this.

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About the Author: Martin Brinkmann is an Online Journalist from Germany who discovered his love for technology in high school. He is currently working as a freelancer for several publications and runs his own Internet website Ghacks

  • smilingman
    @ intrepix
    You said something real important in you post

    " there is always something that MS wants to do to force users to upgrade or buy their software"

    This is MS greatest consumer mistake. Forcing your users to have to upgrade to get a feature that is either not support be 3rd party devs (DX10) or can be replaced with an alternative program(firefox) show a lack of understanding of your user base.
    WMP, DX10, IE8 and other build in programs are not features you buy an OS for. Improve productive, security, connective and data management are the true reason you upgrade your OS.
  • intrepix
    I have to agree with most of the posts here as the media player is something I really don't use, need or want so it really comes with a no loss to me. It seems with each new version of Windows, there is always something that MS wants to do to force users to upgrade or buy their software, I believe DirectX 10 was the carrot with Vista, who knows what MS will come up with next.
  • Greebo
    I prefer GOM over anything else and VLC as a second solution. Both of them use their own codecs (mostly) so locking the Windows default codecs looks like doing the same for Media Player. And it is the right way to solve the Codec mess that half-baked unsupported codecs created.
  • smilingman
    I use GOM Player for video, Songbird for music and K-lite codec pack on Win7 b7000 x86 right now.
    I do not think this is a real issue for must user, just MS trying to get more pro user to use the player.
  • Eoraptor
    But, I wonder how this affects users of CCCP and other Community codec packs otherwise?

    And especially how it operates when you remove Mediacenter/Mediaplayer and then try to alter the codecs? *makes notes on things to try*
  • Stylus
    Good that I use ZoomPlayer + FFDshow + CoreAVC then.
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