Most of you have heard that VLC, the open-source media-playing software is now officially out of beta. Even better, they have released a portable version of the software, which means you can keep VLC on your USB drive and use it on other people’s machines.

Have you tried watching a video on a friend’s computer only find out that they don’t have the proper codecs to play the file?  Putting VLC on a USB thumb-drive prevents that problem.

All you have to do is download the file and install it to your USB drive  When you’re prompted for the installation directory, make sure it is actually on the USB drive – everything you need will be put in that directory, so it is completely registry independent.

If you’re unfamiliar with VLC, it’s a multimedia player famous for being able to play most audio and video formats.  For example, it’s one of the ways to play DVDs in Windows without having to buy a seperate program, it plays H.264 MP4 files, Matroska videos, and various streaming protocols.  In short: It plays almost anything, including HD video.

For advanced users, it can also be used as a streaming server or a transcoder (re-recording video files from one type to another.)

Do you have something specific you use VLC for?  Or do you have another favorite media player?  Please leave some comments!

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Karl L. Gechlik spends all of his free time helping technically challenged individuals on his blog www.askTheAdmin.com.