How to Play YouTube With Windows Media Player

By Mitchell White

Windows Media Player is a piece of native software that comes with the rest of the package when you buy a Windows computer. The program's main file format is WMV. YouTube is a website that streams videos in the FLV format. So if you want to watch movies on YouTube on your Windows Media Player program while offline, you'll need to use some websites that can capture and convert the videos into the WMV format.

Step 1

Open the YouTube video you ant in your browser. Right-click on the URL address at the top of the browser and select "Copy."

Step 2

Navigate to ConvertFiles, FreeFileConvert, or Media-Convert (see Resources). Click the option to download a video from a website. Right-click on the textbox there. Select "Paste." Select the "WMV" format from the output format drop-down menu. Click the "Convert" or "OK" button. Click the link revealed there to download the WMV file to your computer.

Step 3

Click "Start" in Windows and select "Windows Media Player."

Step 4

Click "File" and then "Open."

Step 5

Double-click on the WMV file you just downloaded which should be in your default downloads folder. The file begins playing in Windows Media Player's "Now Playing" tab.

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