Windows Media Player 8

Windows Media Player for Windows XP, or Windows Media Player 8, is a version of Windows Media Player released in 24 August 2001 and included in the original and Service Pack 1 releases of Windows XP. It could also be installed on Windows 2000.

It was replaced by the Windows Media Player 9 Series in Windows Server 2003 and in Windows XP Service Pack 2. According to Microsoft this was done to fix security vunerabilities which were not present in Windows Media Player 9 Series. To restore Windows Media Player 8 on Windows XP, Microsoft advised to uninstall Service Pack 2, or Service Pack 3 (if Service Pack 1 was installed before) for that operating system. Unlike the previous and next release of Windows Media Player, this version does not support Windows 98 and Me.

Windows 2000
Even if this version was made for RTM release of Windows XP and the Service Pack 1 release of that operating system only, it can be installed on Windows 2000 natively. However, "Like Humans Do" by David Byrne in Windows Media Player, located in  will not be included for Windows 2000 upon after installation.