Keeping your computer secure

Windows Media Player has several features that require an Internet connection. The following features may rely on security zones and security settings in Internet Explorer to display or work properly:

• Media Guide
• Radio Tuner
• Premium Services
• Media information such as album art, artist, and track title
• The Find Album Info, View Album Info, Update Album Info, Find DVD Info, View DVD Info, and Info Center View commands
• License acquisition and restoration
• Codec downloads
• The Add button on the Devices tab (which opens a Web page)
• Notification and installation of Player updates

The following options enable you to protect your Player and your computer:

• Run script commands when present. Specifies whether to allow scripts to run in any digital media content that contains them. When you download content from the Web, the scripts are downloaded to your computer and run when you play back the content. Script commands usually contain instructions for the content. Web pages may contain scripts that could run on your computer without your knowledge. For example, malicious scripts could perform unwanted actions on your computer, such as deleting files.

  Using the settings from Internet Explorer security zones, you can prevent items that are not on your computer, such as Web pages, from accessing any information in Media Library, except information that is applicable to that item.

• Do not run script commands and rich media streams if the Player is running inside a Web page. Specifies whether script commands in content can run when the Player is inside a Web page. This option can also prevent rich media streams from running. Rich media streams contain a Microsoft PowerPoint® slide show or a movie and are created by using Microsoft Producer for PowerPoint 2002.
• Zone Settings. Opens the Security dialog box for Internet Explorer. You can change the security settings to control how content is displayed in Web pages and change the level of access Web sites have to your computer. For more information about Internet Explorer security settings, see Internet Explorer Help.

Licenses may sometimes be obtained from Web pages that contain items such as active content, scripts, or forms. These items are prevented from running on your computer by default. If you obtain a license from a Web page that contains scripting or forms, however, these items may be allowed to run based on the security settings in Internet Explorer. Other features of the Web page, such as signed ActiveX controls, are prevented from running.

Changing security settings may affect the operation of Player features or prevent information from being displayed. For example, the Internet Explorer security settings apply to the Radio Tuner Web page, so if you disable Active scripting in the Security Settings dialog box in Internet Explorer, the Radio Tuner Web page does not display correctly in the Player.

This section covers:

• To change script command options
• To change zone settings
• Using a different type of user account

Related topics

• Using the Player