The included Creative Media Explorer software handles all the necessary multimedia tasks. Once installed, when you connect the Zen to your computer, it gives you the option to automatically sync the data.  As shown in Figure8, the Media Explorer software’s main screen  lets you create and manage playlists, rip audio CDs, convert video, and manage data. You will also find that you can easily import any, or all, of your iTunes music into the Media Explorer.

Although the software has a help menu, we found the “how to” area of the Creative website more useful. It has explanations of music formats, video codecs, and other useful related information as well as information on using the Zen player.

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 Figure 8: The Media Explorer software main screen.

Although Creative does not have its own music store like Apple, there is no lack content for the Zen. The Creative website suggests Audible, Napster, Vogo, eMusic, Amazon, and several others. In fact, they have created special offers for Zen users with many of these services.

The ZEN is compatible with Windows XP SP2 and Vista computers. Although you can drag and drop content from your computer to the player, if you have a Mac, you will probably want to look elsewhere. Windows users will also be able to manage the creative data with Windows Media Player, Winamp, and other media players, but the included Media Explorer software worked well enough for all of our needs.