FIX: Cannot Play .mov Files on Windows Media Player
.MOV is a MPEG-4 video container file similar to MP4, MKV, WMV, etc. In layman terms, it as a type of video file developed by Apple. Although it was developed by Apple and is exclusively used by their native QuickTime framework but it can also be played on Windows and Linux systems.
Apple by default has the capabilities to play a MOV video file, but when it comes to Windows Media Player codecs are needed to play .MOV and other types of video files. Codecs are the set of instructions that allows the non-supported video files to be played by Windows Media Player.
If codecs are not installed, you will be presented with the following error “required video codec is not installed”
In this guide, we will list a couple of solutions to help you resolve this issue.
Method 1: Download K-Lite Codecs
Windows Media Player comes packed into Windows. Since it is a default application it lacks several codecs required to play variation of different video formats such as .3gp, mov, etc. In order to fix this, you will download the codecs.
To download the codec for MOV files, click (here). Once the codec pack is downloaded, run it and install it, whilst installing the codecs make sure you uncheck any third party software bundled with the codec pack. Reboot your PC and then try playing the .MOV file in Windows Media Player.
Method 2: Through Media Player Classic
If you don’t want to download the codecs, then you can use Media Player Classic which is a very lightweight media player that can easily play many media files, including MOV files. It is a stand-alone utility that doesn’t install and runs immediately. To download it, go here. After the file has been downloaded, extract it (because it compressed in a zip file) and then Double click the mplayerc.exe to run it.
Drag the MOV file and drop it on Media Player Classic to play it.
Method 3: Using The VLC Player
VLC short for (Video LAN) is an open-source video player. It comes with most codecs packed into it which lets the user play tons of files. You can get it from here.
After the file has been downloaded, run it and install it. Once done, drag the .mov file onto it or open it from within the player.
