Heeding caution over conflict when contemplating codecs

[SledgeProne]

I have some older.avi files that no longer play on my machine, If I download and install an old media player classic for XP, will it conflict with the codecs of my current XP SP3 WMP 11?

Thanks for any insight on this!

 

[MrBlkfx1]

If I understand what you're saying correctly. Installing alternative media players will now conflict with present ones that are already installed.

 

[bobcat]

Installing codecs indiscriminately can indeed lead to conflicts, even crashes. This is unlikely to happen if you just install MP Classic, as this has been done many times before.

But if you want to go the sure way and also get a versatile media player, the recommended one is VLC which comes with its own codecs and plays virtually anything, even broken files.

VLC media player for Windows
There’s also a portable version of it that won’t install anything on your computer.