Windows Media Player not showing on IE8

This happens with IE8 when a website requires windows media player. It just shows a red "x" whenever you try accessing the video link.

There are two possible reasons for this. It's either you haven't installed the Windows Media Player add-on for IE8 or your default media player is not set to use WMP.

To install the Windows Media Player add-on, navigate to the website that is playing music or videos. A prompt in your browser's headline should ask you if you want to run the add-on (see below).

Right click and click "run add-on on all websites".

Click "run" when it prompts you the ActiveX box.

That's it. You should be able to see the windows media player file running now.

Are you still having problems? OK. Given that you have already installed the Internet Explorer Add-on, and the windows media player still does not show up playing the video file, a possible answer for this is maybe due to Windows Media Player 11 not being installed or not being your default media player.

To set it to be the default media player, follow this steps from the Microsoft knowledge base:

1. Open the Control Panel and navigate to Add/Remove Programs.
2. From the Add/Remove Programs, click Set Program Access and Defaults.
3. In the Choose a configuration box, double-click Custom.
4. In the Choose a default media player area, click Windows Media Player, and then click OK.