How to Play MOV Files on Windows (Windows 7 Included)?

The .mov format is the video format used in Apple's Quicktime program, which is a media player similar to Windows Media Player. Before Windows 7, .mov files are not supported by Windows Media player, so Windows users have to download Quicktime to play .mov files. Even in Windows 7, despite rumors around the internet saying Windows 7 will natively support .mov file, people still facing the problem that .mov files are not fully compatible with RTM Windows Media Player.

In this article we will introduce 3 ways to play .mov files in Windows (Windows 7 included).

Part 1 Play .mov files with RTM Windows Media Player in Windows

So you may be reluctant to download and install another media player just to play one format, when you can easily use Windows Media Player to do the job for you, using special video codec.

QuickTime Alternative

QuickTime Alternative is an all-in-one freeware package made for the Windows operating system that enabled more players to play MOV files. Normally, the latest version of QuickTime would have to be installed to play MOV.

If you are having problems getting QuickTime Alternative to work, delete the Quicktime folder under SYSTEMROOTsystem32 (generally C:Windowssystem32quicktime)

3ivx MPEG-4

The 3ivx decoder components play back most MP4, M4A, 3GP, MOV and AVI files with MPEG-4 Video and MPEG-4 AAC Audio. Supported MPEG-4 variants include DivX 3 through 6, Apple MPEG-4 and Xvid. The components work with Windows Media Player, the QuickTime Player.

Though, 3ivx encoder is not an open source, the price is relatively low which costs $7.95.

Part 2 Play .mov files by converting MOV to AVI, WMV, MPEG, MP4, MKV, etc. in Windows

Video Converter Pro

If you just want to play MOV videos in Windows, you can either download a QuickTime player or the codec pack. But if you got pretty videos with different extensions in hand, it is better to use a video converting tool to handle them. A Video Converter is like an integration of all video format components which can convert videos among MOV, AVI, WMV, MPEG, MP4, MKV, FLV, etc. In addition, you can edit your .mov files by cropping the black boarders, trimming large video to small ones, adding text or image watermark, etc.

This Video Converter Pro is an all-in-one app. It enables you to convert video format among almost all popular video formats. Besides, it can rip DVD content to other video formats on PC, so you can play these DVD movies more conveniently.