This page only shows primary.
For other related Vis, see:
- Gallery
| Musical Colors | |
|---|---|
The Musical Colors visualization, set to the «Colors in Motion» preset. |
|
| Description | |
| Versions Available in: | 7, 7.1 and 8 |
| Current Status: | Former/Current Visualization |
| Developed by: | Averett & Microsoft |
| Years Available: | 2000 — 2010’s |
| Random Preset: | No |
| Related Visualizations: | Blazing Colors, Color Cubes, Eclectic Colors, Picture Viz, Plenoptic, Pulsing Colors, Royale Noir, Trilogy |
| Full-Screen Controls: | No (WMP 7 and 8)/Yes (WMP 9-12) |
| Gallery |
Ice Crystals, a preset from the visualization Musical Colors.
Musical Colors is a visualization of twenty-one presets created by Averett & Microsoft. It is one of the oldest visualizations on Windows Media Player, and the visualization first appeared in Windows Media Player 7. There are two different versions to this visualization.
Musical Colors also has a large collection of «sister» visualizations in the Musical Colors Family. Shockingly, later on starting with the Windows Media Player 9 and 10 Series, Musical Colors had disappeared. This occurred because It had certain issues with certain video cards. Fortunately, it can be reinstalled by following these steps below.
Musical Colors File and Installation[]
Windows Media Player Visualizations are made by DLL files. The filename for Musical Colors, «wmpvis», is known as «wmpvis.dll». Find this file in [DllDump.com[1]] and copy that to «C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player» Directory. If you have a 64 bit version of Windows, copy «wmpvis.dll» into «C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Media Player».
For Windows XP[]
If you have Windows Media Player 9 Series or Windows Media Player 10 or below, Run «Windows Media Player». In your menu bar, click tools\options. In your options, those tabs will show up. Click
Plug-Ins\Visualizations then you see visualizations, click add then,
Navigate to your «wmpvis.dll» file. Click it and its listed!
For Windows Media Player 11 on XP and Windows Vista[]
If you have Windows Media Player 11, then you need to open «wmpvis.dll» with «Microsoft (C) Register Server\regsvr32.exe or you can just run regsvr32 «C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmpvis.dll».
For Windows Media Player 12, for Windows 7, 8, 10, 11 or 64 Bit[]
- For WMP Legacy, just simply follow the steps below:
- Open «wmpvis.dll» in «Register Server» in Command Prompt Administrator mode. Once that has opened up, type in «C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmpvis.dll» Also, view the previous information above and use quotes.
- After that, you will see this message as shown below: «DllRegisterServer in wmpvis.dll succeeded.»
WMPGoodies[]
Musical Colors can be installed via WMPGoodies site. Just simply go to the «Visualizations» page and then find and click «Musical Colors». Generally, there are four varieties that you can install; WMP7, WMP8, Beta, and Missing Presets.
Versions of «Musical Colors»[]
- Beta
- 7.0.0.1440
- 8.0.0.4487
- Unused (known as Musical Colors Extended)
The difference between the two versions is that version 7.0.0.1440 has a preset known as «WinMe 3D», and additionally, that version was bundled with «Windows ME».
On the other hand, version 8.0.0.4487 was bundled with «Windows XP». In version 7.0.0.1440, there was an unsupported preset named «Ice Crystals». «Ice Crystals» was one of the 3D presets for version 8.0.0.4487, and the preset «WinMe 3D» was unsupported for version 8.0.0.4487. «WinMe 3D» displays colors of blue, light blue, green, yellow, and orange, and «Ice Crystals» displays shades of only light blue.
Missing Presets (Musical Colors Extended)[]
Can be installed through WMPGoodies site. It consists of eight unused presets, that were lurked around the files or obsoletely used. See the list of «Unused Presets».
Presets[]
- Night Lights
- Colors in Motion
- Aurora
- Rhythmic Colors
- Star Power
- Electric Green
- Soft Fire
- Silky Wave
- CutOut
- Rolling Fire
- Water Spray
- Acid Rock
- Hard Rock
- Hot Spray
- Yellow Swirl
- Blue Flame
- Critter Rock
- Electric Rainbow
- Neon Highway
- WinMe 3D (for Windows Media Player 7 and 7.1 for Windows Millennium Edition, installable on Windows 98 and 2000. Also works on Windows XP and later if Musical Colors isn’t already installed)
- Ice Crystals (for Windows Media Player 9-10 and for Windows XP, Windows Vista or later)
Unused Presets[]
- Stalactite (became a preset for Opengl Vis)
- Rolling Colors (became a preset for Eclectic Colors)
- Wild Rock (became a preset for Opengl Vis)
- Red Rock (became a preset for Opengl Vis)
- Color Cave (became a preset for Opengl Vis)
- Lightning (became a preset for Opengl Vis)
- Untitled – (Labeled as “Work in Progress”)
- Colors in Motion in Progress – (Early version of “Colors in Motion”)
Musical Colors is a collection of visualizations designed for Windows Media Player. The visualizations first appeared in Windows Media Player 7 and then later disappeared starting with the release of Windows Media Player 9. Over time, people enjoyed the Musical Colors theme and upon buying a new computer, discovered that it wasn’t there anymore. The following explains some tips and info about the Musical Colors visualizations as well as instructions for installment on computers that don’t contain the Musical Colors visualizations.
Compatibility
Musical Colors works on Windows Media Player version 7 and above including version 11 & 12. Musical Colors also works with Windows Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 and 10. The only issue is that full screen viewing on a widescreen monitor will cause the visualizations to be shifted to the left of the screen with a thick black bar to the right. This is because Musical Colors is not widescreen capable.
Musical Colors Versions
There are two different versions of the Musical Colors visualizations. They are:
- Version 7.0.0.1440 (Windows Media 7 / Windows Me)
- Version 8.0.0.4477 (Windows Media 8 / Windows XP)
The main difference between the two versions is that 7.0.0.1440 contains a visualization called “WinMe 3D”, since that version was bundled with Windows Me. 8.0.0.4477 was bundled with Windows XP, and the WinMe 3D visualization was replaced with a similar visual named “Ice Crystals”. WinMe 3D displays colors of blue, light blue, green, yellow, and orange. Ice Crystals display shades of light blue.
WinMe 3D
Ice Crystals
Another difference between the two versions is when you pause Windows Media Player, version 7.0.0.1440 of Musical Colors continues to display the visualizations with continuous movement. Version 8.0.0.4477 of Musical Colors will cut to black when paused, hiding the visualizations.
Locating The Musical Colors File
First you have to decide which version of Musical Colors you want. (See Musical Colors Versions above). Musical Colors are located inside a file called wmpvis.dll. The best way to locate the file is to copy it off of a computer that already has it installed or off of a Windows installation CD.
For Musical Colors version 7.0.0.1440
Use a computer running Windows Me with Windows Media Player 7 installed. The wmpvis.dll file can be found under the C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player directory. You can also retrieve the file off of the Windows Me installation CD by going to the cabinet file <CD drive>\win9x\WIN_16.CAB and extracting the wmpvis.dll file.
For Musical Colors version 8.0.0.4477
Use a computer that was originally installed with Windows Media Player 8 and with Windows XP service pack 1 or earlier. Locate the wmpvis.dll file under the C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player directory. You can also retrieve the file off of a Windows XP installation CD containing service pack 1 or earlier by going to <CD drive>\I386 and locating WMPVIS.DL_. Copy the file to your desktop. Open your Command Prompt and type: cd desktop and press enter. Then type expand wmpvis.dl_ wmpvis.dll and press enter. This will expand and decompress the file to make it usable.
Installation
For 32-bit versions of Windows, copy wmpvis.dll to the C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player folder. For 64-bit versions of Windows, copy wmpvis.dll to the C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Media Player folder.
Note: If you copy/paste the command lines below, you will have to retype the quotes so they are ‘straight’. Smart quotes will cause the command to fail. I keep putting straight quotes in, but WordPress reverts them back to smart quotes at some point!
For Windows XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10 32-Bit
On the desktop, bring up the run dialog box by holding down WinKey+R. Type or copy/paste the following line including the quotes.
Regsvr32 “C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmpvis.dll”
For Windows Vista/7 64-Bit
- Open the Start Menu and type cmd (Command Prompt) in the search box.
- In the search results, right-click on cmd and select Run as Administrator.
- In the Command Prompt, type cd \windows\syswow64 and hit enter.
- Then type Regsvr32 “C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Media Player\wmpvis.dll”
For Windows 8/8.1/10 64-Bit
- On the desktop, right-click on the start button (extreme left side of the taskbar for Windows
and select Command Prompt (Admin). - In the Command Prompt, type cd \windows\syswow64 and hit enter.
- Then type Regsvr32 “C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Media Player\wmpvis.dll”
and select Command Prompt (Admin).Click OK or press enter, A dialog box appears with the following text; “DllRegisterServer in C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmpvis.dll succeeded.” Click OK. Open Windows Media Player and check your visualizations. Musical Colors should now be listed.
If you are using 32-bit Windows Vista/7/8/8.1/10 and you encounter an error message after clicking OK in the Run dialog box, try using the Command Prompt, making sure it’s running with administrator privileges.
Names of the Visualizations
In the Musical Colors menu, you will see the following names. Click on a name to see a picture of the visualization.
- Night Lights
- Colors in Motion
- Aurora
- Rhythmic Colors
- Star Power
- Electric Green
- Soft Fire
- Silky Wave
- CutOut
- Rolling Fire
- Water Spray
- Acid Rock
- Hard Rock
- Hot Spray
- Yellow Swirl
- Blue Flame
- Critter Rock
- Electric Rainbow
- Neon Highway
- WinMe 3D (version 7.0.0.1440 only)
- Ice Crystals (version 8.0.0.4477 only)
Lost Musical Colors Visualizations
You may have heard about a theme for Windows XP named “Royale Noir” that was cancelled or removed during development, then was leaked to the public and became popular. One day I opened the wmpvis.dll inside Notepad just to look around. After scrolling though garbled unreadable information, I found the names of each visualization near the bottom of the file. What I then found were several names that didn’t appear on the Musical Colors menu inside Windows Media Player.
- Stalactite
- Rolling Colors*
- Wild Rock
- Red Rock
- Color Cave
- Lighting
- Untitled – (Labeled as “Work in Progress”)
- Colors in Motion in Progress – (Early version of “Colors in Motion”?)
These missing visualizations are listed in both versions of Musical Colors. These visualizations were probably intended to be included with the rest of the Musical Colors visualizations, but were probably removed because they were not finished or had issues. I am not sure if these visualizations themselves exist in he wmpvis.dll file. What’s interesting is that in version 7.0.0.1440, “Ice Crystals” appears inside the wmpvis.dll file but is not listed in Windows Media Player. “WinMe 3D” also appears in version 8.0.0.4477 and is not listed in Windows Media Player. This makes me think that the missing visualizations possibly exist in the wmpvis.dll file, but are turned off or ignored so that Windows Media Player does not list them. After various searches on the Internet, I did not find anything about these missing visuals.
Update 8/6/2023: Special thanks to bluedragon-cairo for enabling these missing visualizations. The modified wmpvis.dll can be downloaded here. (Korean version here). WARNING: Selecting the “Work in Progress” visualization will cause Windows Media Player to behave erratically, and may crash the program. Restarting Windows Media Player should clear up any issues caused by this preset if it’s accidentally selected.
*Rolling Colors was re-purposed for the Eclectric collection of visualizations, which was part of the Windows Media Player 7 Bonus Pack. More information about the bonus pack and its visualizations here.
- Publication date
-
2015-05-19
- Usage
- Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0
- Topics
- windows media player, visualizations, windows xp, os
- Language
- English
- Item Size
- 58.1M
I managed to get the old visualizations back on Windows Media Player 11.
- Addeddate
- 2016-01-22 04:44:19
- Identifier
- AmbienceParticlePlenopticSpikesAndMusicalColorsO
- Scanner
- Internet Archive HTML5 Uploader 1.6.3
plus-circle Add Review
plus-circle Add Review
comment
Reviews
(2)
There are 2 reviews for this item. .
3,001
Views
1
Favorite
2
Reviews
DOWNLOAD OPTIONS
download 1 file
ITEM TILE download
download 1 file
MPEG4 download
download 1 file
OGG VIDEO download
download 1 file
TORRENT download
download 14 Files
download 7 Original
SHOW ALL
IN COLLECTIONS
Community Video
Uploaded by
cdgngj11 (aka Brian Coukis)
on
Introduction
In today’s digital age, music has become an integral part of our lives. With the advancements in technology, we now have access to a plethora of music streaming services and media players that allow us to enjoy our favorite tunes anytime, anywhere. One such popular media player is Windows Media Player.
Windows Media Player not only allows you to play your music files but also enhances your listening experience with its range of visualizations. These visualizations add a new dimension to your music, turning it into a visually stimulating experience. In this article, we will explore the 5 coolest Windows Media Player visuals that you can use to take your music experience to the next level.
- Bars and Waves
Bars and Waves is one of the classic visualizations available in Windows Media Player. This visualization displays colorful bars and waves that move and dance to the rhythm of the music. As the beats of the song change, so do the patterns and colors of the bars and waves, creating a mesmerizing visual display that perfectly complements the music.
Bars and Waves is a great visualization to use when you want to add a dynamic and energetic element to your music listening experience. It is perfect for upbeat, fast-paced songs that will get you grooving along with the visuals. The vibrant colors and fluid movements of the bars and waves make it a visually captivating experience that will keep you entertained for hours on end.
- Musical Colors
Musical Colors is another visually stunning visualization available in Windows Media Player. This visualization displays a swirling and shifting display of colors that change and morph in response to the music. The colors ebb and flow with the melody, creating a beautiful and mesmerizing visual representation of the song.
Musical Colors is a great visualization to use when you want to add a touch of elegance and sophistication to your music listening experience. The smooth and fluid movements of the colors create a calming and soothing effect that perfectly complements slower, more melodic songs. It is a visual treat for the eyes and adds a layer of depth and richness to your music experience.
- Battery
Battery is a unique and futuristic visualization available in Windows Media Player. This visualization displays a pulsating battery icon that changes size and color in response to the music. The battery icon appears to be charging and discharging, creating a visually interesting and dynamic display that captures the essence of the song.
Battery is a great visualization to use when you want to add a modern and tech-savvy element to your music listening experience. The pulsating battery icon adds a sense of movement and energy to the visuals, making it perfect for electronic and techno music. The futuristic look and feel of the visualization make it a visually captivating experience that will keep you engaged and entertained.
- Alchemy
Alchemy is a visually striking visualization available in Windows Media Player. This visualization displays a series of intricate and complex geometric shapes that move and twist in response to the music. The shapes morph and transform in sync with the melody, creating a mesmerizing and hypnotic visual display.
Alchemy is a great visualization to use when you want to add a touch of mystique and intrigue to your music listening experience. The intricate patterns and shapes of the visualization create a sense of depth and complexity that perfectly complements the music. It is perfect for songs with a strong rhythm and beat, as the visuals will enhance the energy and intensity of the music.
- Particle
Particle is a visually stunning visualization available in Windows Media Player. This visualization displays a flurry of colorful particles that move and swirl in response to the music. The particles bounce and collide with each other, creating a visually dynamic and engaging display that captures the essence of the song.
Particle is a great visualization to use when you want to add a sense of playfulness and fun to your music listening experience. The colorful particles and fluid movements create a lively and energetic visual display that will keep you entertained for hours on end. It is perfect for upbeat and lively songs that will get you moving and grooving along with the visuals.
Conclusion
Windows Media Player offers a range of visually stunning visualizations that can enhance your music listening experience. From classic visuals like Bars and Waves to futuristic displays like Battery, there is a visualization for every mood and music genre. Whether you want to add a touch of elegance and sophistication or a sense of playfulness and fun, Windows Media Player has you covered. So, the next time you listen to your favorite tunes, why not try one of these cool visualizations and take your music experience to the next level.
The old Windows Media Players has interesting visualizations named Musical Colors. If you want to have them back, you can import them back. This works on any WMP versions, follow the simple steps below
Download or get file wmpvis.dll.
If you do not have a friend with Millenium or 2000, download file: http://www.dlldll.com/wmpvis.dll_download.html
http://www.dlldump.com/download-dll-files_new.php/dllfiles/W/wmpvis.dll/8.00.00.44776/download.html
Unzip the file into your documents. Then copy it to system32.
In XP: Go to run… and write: regsvr32 wmpvis.dll. You may receive the message of success.
Previous step won’t work on Vista or 7. In Vista or 7 you have to do the following: Run CMD.exe as administrator. Also copy wmpvis.dll into system32. Then write: regsvr32 wmpvis.dll. You also see message of success. Now run Media Player, select visualization, and you’ve got it.
Help Us Grow
If you like this post, please share it with your friends.
You are free to copy and redistribute this article in any medium or format, as long as you keep the links in the article or provide a link back to this page.