How can I configure Windows Media Player to manage my music library?

Question

I'm currently using Windows Media Player 12 on Windows 7 Ultimate. I was using iTunes, but since I got my Android phone, I got rid of my iPod and uninstalled iTunes. I'm trying to do things like keep music organized in the form My Music/Artist/CD/## - Song.mp3, but Windows Media Player usually fails to load my music library (which is in the default location, by the way), "forgets" adjustments that I make to the tags, doesn't move songs to the proper directories, and doesn't rename files appropriately.

So here is what I've done three times now. I open Windows Media Player and I'm greeted with a message that says there are no songs. Then, it appears to scan my music library and find my music. However, a bunch of songs are labeled as "Unknown" - they do not have an artist associated with them. I manually use the tools to find artist and album information and they are renamed and reorganized. But then, next time I start WMP, they are all back to unknown. It's beyond annoying.

I went through the settings once, changed a few things, and thought I was good to go. But this is not the case. Can I make Windows Media Player do these things? I've seen the other questions about applications to do this, but I would prefer to use Windows Media Player if at all possible - I'm not a huge into perfection, but I do like an organized library. I would like to do this with as few media applications as possible.

My goal is to have Windows Media Player manage everything - make sure album titles are correct, song names, artists, file names, locations. I want everything handled in one application and I want that one application to be WMP.

Solution

Surprisingly, its about as easy to do in Windows Media Player as it is in iTunes. Here is a link to an article for vista, and while some of the menu options differ, the steps are all the same:

http://www.quepublishing.com/articles/article.aspx?p=688534&seqNum=4

In the instructions where it says "the arrow below the library tab", just click the "Organize" button. The rest follows pretty closely.

Here is a digest:

1. click "Organize", then "Options"
2. On the library tab be sure to check "Rename music files using rip music settings" and "Rearrange music in rip music folder, using rip music settings". These settings will allow windows media player to organize the music in the folder you select on the "Rip Music" tab, so make sure this is the parent folder of all your music.
3. Click "Apply" and "OK"
4. click "Organize", then click "Apply media information changes".

Your library will be updated and all songs that you had added to the library that we not located in your music folder (the one specified in the "Rip Music" tab) will be moved, renamed, etc.