Microsoft Releases New Windows Media Plug-in For Firefox

Microsoft has released a new Windows Media plug-in for Firefox which allows you to use Windows Media Player inside the Firefox browser. The new plug-in supports Windows XP SP2 and Vista including the 64 bit versions of both OSes.

Port25, a Microsoft website devoted to interoperability with Linux, is hosting the download. If you visit the plug-in site at Mozilla, you will be automatically redirected to Port25 to download and install the plug-in. (screenshots after the jump)

Some Firefox users have complained that Microsoft is not using the XPI format for extensions, but in fact the .xpi extensions are for add-ons not plug-ins. As with the Flash plug-in for Firefox, the Windows Media plug-in in a .exe file.

The new plug-in addresses the known issues that plagued the previous version and adds Vista support.

There is however one known issue with the new plugin as noted on the Port25 site:

There is a known issue if you are using Firefox version 2.0.0.3 on Windows Vista with the installer failing with error code -203. To work around this simply restart Firefox (you will get a notification that Windows Vista will be changing the Firefox compatibility settings) and then install again - the second time should succeed.

I did not experience this issue and in fact had no problems at all installing the plug-in on Firefox 2.0.0.3 on Vista, but if you do let us know is the workaround helps.

Also note that the plug-in is compatible with the 64 bit versions of XP and Vista, but not with the 64 bit version of Firefox.

Regrettably there is still no plug-in for Windows Media 11 on Mac or Linux.