I just want to watch a movie, damn it!

December 2, 2005 8:21 AM

Traveling on business with a company laptop -- has a DVD drive, but no DVD software. I want to watch a DVD to make the long train ride home bearable, but I don't have administrator privileges to install any software.

Computer has Windows Media Player and Real Player installed, but neither will play the DVD as there are no DVD decoders/software installed. The computer has no problem recognizing the DVD and viewing the files.

There's a Radio Shack a couple of blocks from the conference I'm at. Could I buy a cheap jump drive, install a player on that and use it to watch my DVDs? Or will the computer not allow that as well?

Any other workarounds or do I have to call up the IT guys and grovel for them do me a favor and install the software?

posted by Heminator to computers & internet (5 answers total)

If you can run standalone .EXE files, maybe there's a media player type app that doesn't really need to be installed into the registry to work. Media Player Classic comes to mind, but I haven't tried if that works.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 8:31 AM on December 2, 2005

There's a zip package of VLC that you can just unzip and use without an installer. It plays DVDs pretty well.
posted by zsazsa at 8:34 AM on December 2, 2005

Take cookies to your IT guy.
posted by kindall at 8:47 AM on December 2, 2005

You can run Media Player Classic without having to install it. Download the package and unzip it to find the .exe file. Double-click on the exe, then drag the VIDEO_TS folder onto the player.
posted by event at 8:55 AM on December 2, 2005

Man I love this site. Thank you Zsaza. That did it.
posted by Heminator at 8:55 AM on December 2, 2005