Recently went through setup of a new computer with Windows Vista Business N edition. The 'N' editions of Windows Vista have had the Windows Media functionality removed at the request of the European Union. I think this has more impact on users accidentally picking up the 'N' edition without forethought than it does Microsoft - the naming seems to suggest to some people that this is an enhanced edition.
Aside from unavailability of Windows Media Player, the impacts of this missing functionality appeared to include:
- No support for MediaElement in WPF
- No support for MediaElement in Silverlight
- Windows Experience Index could not be calculated - and this caused the Aero theme to be unavailable.
Before SP1 availability you could always restore the media functionality by installing Windows Media Player 11 (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download/AllDownloads.aspx) but after installing SP1 this installation will fail part way through.
Vista SP1 makes changes to the windows installer that are not undone by uninstalling Vista SP, and whilst there are reportedly plans to update the installer, the updated version is not currently available.
Either
- Install Windows Media Player 11 before Windows Service Pack 1 or
- If available, use a non 'N' version of Windows - the regular versions will install the correct functionality and cost the same.