Like what I promised in the previous post concerning Vista Codec Package, I’m going to show you some nifty features not-enabled-by-default that comes with it to beef up your lame Windows Media Player 11. Unlike Media Player Classic, which comes subtitle loading features in-built with it, Windows Media Player 11’s default subtitle functionality is too limited. It can only load subtitle files placed on same directory as the video file — likewise there’s workaround! On this post I will teach you how to show custom subtitles (i.e., using SRT subtitle file format, among others). This tutorial is effective to other compatible media players installed in your system as well. So here it goes…

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Without third party codec support, Windows Media Player 11 (and even Windows Media Center) that comes in the default installation of Windows Vista operating system is truly lame. And even though it deserves merits for its sleek design, it still lags behind even to opensource media players. I once hailed Media Player Classic to be the best media player in Windows Vista, but since I  pity much Windows’ media player home court, I sought a way to beef it up functionality-speaking –  and here’s how.

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In my old Pentium 4 computer, I already experienced all kinds of problems in my hardware units from my hard disk getting unusable and files corrupted, to CD-ROM drive and RAM failing. However, just recently my external hard disk enclosure, which I used to extend the capacity of my hard drive storage, failed. I found out that it wasn’t the enclosure electronics that was failing, but the power cord! This kind of problem happens less often, but somehow still bothersome.

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Not much, really. On my previous post I’ve told you that I am planning to boost my Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit system from 2 GB to 3 GB – and so I did it yesterday without second thought just when my funds got enough to buy a 2 GB memory stick for my laptop. The result: there was a measurable increase of responsiveness on most applications – but not really much to awe.

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My Neo laptop had breathe for almost a year now and yet, after several component upgrades, my Vista still feels slow especially when I am running productivity software. Is it my system or Window Vista that is keeping me from getting the computing performance that I need? Let’s explore that, shall we.

August last year my employer got me a laptop (Neo 540NVP2i) with the following specifications: 1.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 1 GB DDR2 memory (RAM), 80 GB SATA hard drive, a DVD writer drive, an integrated graphics RAM, and Genuine OEM Windows Vista Home Premium operating system.
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