Hi Lifehacker, I use the in-built "play-to" feature of Windows 7 to stream music from my laptop to a little Roku unit I have hooked up to my hi-fi.Is there anything available for Android which would allow me to control this "play to" feature from my phone? I guess I'm looking for a Windows Media Player controller app, but one that supports the play-to feature. Other solutions welcome, of course. Thanks, Fed Up Getting Off My Couch

Windows: If you use a standard keyboard without media keys, or want universal access to Windows Media Player when it's in the background, WMP Keys is the perfect plug-in. It sets customised, universal shortcuts for playing and rating WMP tracks.

If you haven't learned to love Windows Media Player yet, free plugin Windows Media Player Plus might change your mind. adding tweaks like find as you type, disabling group headers, a new tag editor, and the Explorer context menu within your library.

Windows: If you'd been enamoured with the idea of TuneUp — brilliant and speedy correction of music tags and cover art — but not so enamoured with having to use iTunes, TuneUp is now available for Windows Media Player.

The TechRadar site decided to settle the matter of media player performance in definitive fashion, loading up a few test files in different formats in 16 different media players, including Lifehacker favourites VLC Media Player, Media Player Classic and Windows Media Player, the built-in app we've recently learned to love. The results?

I've used a lot of media players over the years, but I've always avoided Windows Media Player like the plague. Then I encountered Windows Media Player 12 on Windows 7, and suddenly I find myself singing a different tune.

Here's a new one to us: Linking your Windows Live ID to Windows Media Player 12 in Windows 7 allows you to stream your entire music library to any computer. Even better: no need to install third-party software with this method.

Dear Lifehacker, Windows Media Player hijacked my MP3 files and converted them all to WMA. I want to change them back easily in one sweep—but am not the most savvy user. Help? Signed, Gimme My Beats Back Original photo by Mark Kobayashi-Hillary

After Sanity launched its Australian Loadit music subscription service last month, there were muffled complaints about the price, but the biggest complaints of all came from users who didn't want the Loadit button appearing in their Windows Media Player by default. The Loadit store is automatically added when you check for updates, and by the time you realise it has appeared, it's a bit late to do anything about it. If you don't want to have Loadit in your face every time you play a song or video clip, do you have any choice? Lifehacker explores your options.

Subscription services -- where you pay a monthly fee in return for streaming and/or download access to a large music library -- are common in the US, but Sanity's new LOADIT service is the first such option we've encountered in Australia. For $29 a month, you can download up to 300 tracks each month. Tracks are encoded in Windows Media Audio format, which means you can only play them back in Windows Media Player 11 (which is where the service is accessed) or on WMA-compatible MP3 players. That means no joy for iPod fans. Does the notion of a download subscription service appeal to you, or would you rather purchase go-anywhere music? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Now that the Xbox 360 has been updated to support DivX/XviD playback, work-arounds like conversion and the Transcode 360 Media Center hack aren't strictly necessary. The Pain in the Tech blog offers two walkthroughs for using Winamp Remote (part of Winamp 5.5) or Windows Media Player 11 to stream video from your PC to your XBox. Both programs have their pros and cons (based mainly on media accessibility versus buffering times), but both also get the job done. If you've put together your own PC-to-Xbox streaming solution, let's hear it in the comments.
Stream video to Xbox 360 with Winamp Remote and Windows Media Player

You've put together the perfect holiday playlist for your office party and don't want anyone to mess with your computer while the music's pumping? The How-To Geek weblog highlights a lesser-known feature of Windows Media Player that allows you to lock the screen in fullscreen mode, enter a 4-digit PIN, and leave your computer safely pumping out tunes. It's not groundbreaking, but I can say that I do wish iTunes had something similar for fullscreen Cover Flow mode.
Lock The Screen While in Full-Screen Mode in Windows Media Player