You can add files to your media library by ripping your CDs to audio files see the section “Ripping a CD,” later in this article, by having Windows Media Player automatically monitor folders for new media files, or by using drag and drop.

Adding Files from Automatically Monitored Folders

To set up Windows Media Player to add media files automatically from certain folders, take the following steps:

1.  Right-click the command bar right-click just to the right of the Forward button and choose File   Add to Library from the menus. Windows Media Player displays the Add to Library dialog box . If you see the smaller version of the dialog box, click the Advanced Options button to reveal the rest of it.

2.  If you just want to monitor Windows’ media folders such as the Music folder in your user account, select the My Personal Folders option button. If you want to monitor media folders that other users of this computer and other computers on your network are sharing, select the My Folders and Those of Others That I Can Access option button. The list box shows the folders Windows Media Player is set to monitor and their folder type- for example, your Music folder is typically designated the Rip Folder.

3.  To add another folder, click the Add button, select the folder in the Add Folder dialog box, and then click the OK button. To remove a folder, select it in the list box, and then click the Remove button.

4.  If you want Windows Media Player to restore any files that you’ve deleted from your music library, select the Add Files Previously Deleted from Library check box.

5.  If you want to apply normalization to all files, select the Add Volume-Leveling Values for All Files check box. This process can take a long time if you’re adding many files.

6.  In the Skip Files Smaller Than area, use the Audio Files text box and the Video Files text box to specify the smallest size of files that you want to include the default settings, 100KB for audio files and 500KB for video files, work well for many people. These minimum sizes help you avoid adding very short audio files for example, system sounds and video clips to your media library.

7.  Click the OK button. Windows Media Player displays the Add to Library by Searching Computer dialog box, as shown next, while it searches for files and then adds them to your media library.

8.  For best results, let Windows Media Player finish adding the files. If you need to start using Windows Media Player before that, you can click the Close button to close the dialog box. Windows Media Player continues adding the files in the background, but the process takes longer.

Adding Files via Drag and Drop

If you don’t want to put all your audio or video files into the folders you’ve set Windows Media Player to monitor, you can add a file or folder to your media library by using drag and drop. Open a Windows Explorer window, position it so that you can see the Library item on the left of the Win dows Media Player window, and then drag the file or folder from the Windows Explorer window to the Library item.

Playing Audio Files

To play a song from the music library, take the following steps:

1.  Click the drop-down arrow on the Library button on the command bar, and then choose Music from the drop-down menu. Windows Media Player displays the Library page show- ing your music .

2.  Use the items in the left panel to navigate to the song you want. For example, click the Artist item in the Library category to display a list of artists, and then double-click the artist to display the songs by that artist.

3.  Double-click the song, or click it and then click the Play button at the bottom of the Windows Media Player window.

Creating Playlists

To make a sequence of songs you want to play, create a playlist. Take the following steps:

1.  Click the drop-down arrow on the Library button on the command bar, and then choose Music from the drop-down menu. Windows Media Player displays the Library page showing your music.

2.  Press Ctrl+N or click the drop-down arrow on the Library button, and then choose Create Playlist. Windows Media Player displays a playlist pane at the right side of the window, gives it the name Untitled Playlist, and selects the name so that you can overwrite it.

Choosing Visualizations

When it’s playing audio, Windows Media Player shows visualizations graphical displays on the Now Playing page. To toggle a visualization to full screen, press Alt+Enter or click the View Full Screen button in the lower-right corner of the Windows Media Player window. Press the Esc key or Alt+Enter again to toggle off full screen. To change the visualization, click the Now Playing drop-down button, choose Visualizations from the menu, and then make a choice from one of the submenus.

3.  Type a new name over the text, and then press the Enter button. Windows Media Player adds the playlist to the Playlists list in the left pane.

4.  Drag songs to the playlist to add them.

5.  To change the order of the songs in the playlist, drag them up or down.

6.  Click the Save Playlist button. Windows Media Player saves the playlist. You can also create Auto Playlists- playlists in which Windows Media Player picks the tracks for you according to the criteria you specify. To create an Auto Playlist, follow these steps:

1.  Click the drop-down arrow on the Library button on the command bar, and then choose Create Auto Playlist from the drop-down menu. Windows Media Player displays the New Auto Playlist dialog box .

2.  Type the name for the playlist in the Auto Playlist Name text box.

3.  Use the Controls in the main box to specify which songs to include in the playlist.

4.  Click the OK button. Windows Media Player closes the New Auto Playlist dialog box and adds the playlist to the Playlists category. To play a playlist, double-click it.