Microphone Adapter Laptop

Microphone Adapter Laptop

Electric Guitar - laptop question?

I want to plug a fairly cheap electric guitar into my laptop and listen to what i am playing through headphones connected to the headphone socket of my laptop.
Do i need a special adapter between the electric guitar and the laptop ?

I presume I plug it into the microphone socket of the laptop ?
If I connect via USB will the laptop use windows media player to play what I am playing through the headphones or laptop speakers ?

Your best bet is to buy a Lightsnake cable (it plugs your guitar into the computer via USB) and that way you can even record. If you buy Native Instruments' "Guitar Rig 3" then you have the power of multiple amps at your fingertips. Guitar Rig is an AWESOME program that allows you to take any acoustic guitar sound clip and re-route it through the virtual amps it has, thus turning them electric. You also have bass amps and multiple SFX amps available, and if you buy the Rig Kontrol foot pedal with Guitar Rig, you can just plug your guitar into the pedal and plug the pedal into your computer and you're set.