Doh! Missing Windows Media Player

I just spent about 20 minutes cursing Microsoft.

I was using the Windows 7 RC which is expiring so my computer was restarting every 2 hours. I was smoking a blunt while I downloaded and installed Windows 7 Ultimate x64 from TechNet. After I was finished I installed a codec pack and went to play some of my downloaded TV shows, only to discover that I have no Windows Media Player.

If I search my C:\ drive it does not find wmplayer.exe. If I look in Program Files or Program Files (x86) there is no Windows Media Player folder. If I go to Add/Remove Windows Components there is no option to install Windows Media Player.

Now that I've figured out that I was cursing Microsoft for my mistake, can anyone else tell where I fucked up?

 

VLC is too heavy and it chokes my computer when I try to play uncompressed Blu-Rays.

I use MPC a lot but it is screwing up the aspect ratio on some videos, and it won't play WMV's (maybe it is supposed to, but it isn't). Also as far as I know it lacks a music library feature.

Haven't heard of GOM Player.

As it turns out, I accidentally installed "Windows 7 Ultimate N". The N indicates that it was a special version of Windows that does not include Windows Media Player at all.

Supposedly this was due to a decision by the European Union's antitrust courts in a case where Real was the plaintiff (they were bitching about their shitty RealPlayer not being used). So, MS removed Windows Media Player. Turns out that RealPlayer cannot function without some WMP components so Real screwed themselves too.

I could download WMP but I will just reinstall the correct version of Windows.