Starting Windows Media Player from a link

There are two ways to start Microsoft Windows Media Player from a link on a Web page or Web application and receive content streamed from a Windows Media server:

1. You can enable HTTP streaming and use HTTP links to the ASF content directly. You must use HTTP streaming to stream content through a firewall.
2. You can use HTTP links to .asx files, which contain instructions that Windows Media Player uses to access ASF content. The .asx file must reside on an HTTP server, such as Internet Information Services (IIS), in a directory accessible to the user.

To launch Windows Media Player from a link in a Web page or Web application using an .asx metafile, create a URL in the HTML code similar to the following example:

<A href=http://server/file.asx>

This link will send the client to the .asx file which will in turn direct the player to the access point for your content.