By default, when playing streaming multimedia files with QuickTime for Windows, the application will try to play the files as quickly as possible. This is done by playing the multimedia as it is being downloaded.

Once a small part of the multimedia, such as a movie, has finished downloading, QuickTime will immediately start playing the file, assuming that it will finish downloading the rest of the file faster than the time it takes to actually play it.

However, this always does not work satisfactorily. Due to network issues or limited bandwidth, QuickTime may start playing the multimedia, have to stop to continue downloading, then restart playback, stop to download a little more, etc. This can result in a less than pleasing multimedia experience.

To adjust this feature to force QuickTime to download more of a movie before attempting to play it, do the following:

1. Open the QuickTime for Windows Control Panel applet.

2. When the "QuickTime Preferences" multi-tabbed dialog box appears, click the "Streaming" tab.

3. Underneath "Instant-On", move the slide all the way to the right to "Short Delay".

4. Click "OK" to close the dialog box.

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