Microsoft Desktop Player Finds, Plays and Downloads Webcasts Podcasts and White Papers

Microsoft Desktop Player is a Silverlight application that lets you find Webcasts, Podcasts and White Papers from the Microsoft site, matching your search query. And, of course, it can play Webcasts and Podcasts and also download the content locally if you need. You just need to select the appropriate radio button (IT Pro, or Developer), select a topic from the dropdown and click Search. You’ll see the list of resources available for the particular topic area.

Open the Microsoft Desktop Player page at Microsoft site.

Choose IT Pro or Developer option, select a product and click Search.

For example, under the IT Pro track, I selected Windows 7 (Focusing on Support) and clicked the Search button. Here I get the list of Webcasts, Podcasts and White Papers per my search criteria.

It defaults to the “Details” which provides a short blurb on what each item is about. “Summary” mode simply displays the title, as in the above screenshot.

If you liked the Microsoft Desktop Player, you can install the standalone version (desktop application) from the following URL:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/4/5/645D41E4-C48A-431D-9EAC-73D1A1901D29/MicrosoftDesktopPlayer.msi

Here is the Webcast that’s currently playing in my Microsoft Desktop Player desktop application.

Move your mouse pointer over the presentation and you’ll see the options to share it in social networking sites, add the media to the My Library section etc.

Downloading Content Locally

Adding it to My Library downloads the media for offline access and stores it in the following folder:

C:\Users\{username}\Documents\Microsoft Desktop Player\Content

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