This guide is for Windows XP Media Center Edition. Use this guide for Windows Vista.

If you’re like me and you’ve got a brand new media center PC running Microsoft Windows Media Center Edition 2005, you’ve probably noticed that Firefox won’t play embedded Windows Media Player files. This is because of a missing DLL that Windows XP Home and Pro both have, but for some reason Media Center Edition doesn’t.

Most likely you have already tried this guide from the Mozilla guys and it hasn’t worked. My solution is 2 steps that should have you watching movies in no time.

Step 1: After you’ve installed Firefox, download and install this file. It is the official Netscape media player plug-in from Microsoft. (It works for Firefox as well.)
Step 2: Once you have the first file installed, download and install this file. This is a security update for the above file and will keep you from being exploited by a malicious website.

That’s it, you should be all set.