While in the past Windows Media Player was the default program on Windows PCs all over the world to watch videos and listen to music, with Windows 10 Microsoft has decided not to focus on its historical software anymore.
The problem that Microsoft had with Windows Media Player, is not linked so much to a technical decision, but rather to the fine derived from the accusation of having exploited the dominant position in pre-installing software at the expense of other multimedia file reproduction software.
For this reason, Microsoft has no longer released updates for WMP and in Windows 10, has given up the audio and video recorder program, has created a new app to listen to music instead of Windows Media Player, instead giving up on including a new application. to watch videos and DVDs.
It was also forced to release, in the European market, a version of Windows 10 called Windows 10 N, without Windows Media Player .
Windows Media Player 12 is the latest version of this program, no longer updated since 2009 and which may even disappear entirely in the future.
For the moment, however, you can still download Windows Media Player 12 for Windows 10 (in Windows 7 and 8.1 it is still included in the standard installation).
Where Windows Media Player ended up in Windows 10 "> reinstall Windows Media Player without needing to download it.
In Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Pro, you can enable the Windows Media Player 12 program by opening the Settings from the Start menu, then in the Apps section, press on the right side on Manage optional features .
Then press on Add a feature, scroll down to find Windows Media Player, select it and install it.
The same thing can also be done from Control Panel> Programs and Features, click on the link on the left " Activating and deactivating Windows functionality ", select Multimedia Features and then Windows Media Player from the list and press OK.
Download Windows Media Player 12 to Windows 10 N
As, as mentioned above, the European Commission has established that Microsoft could not pre-install some of its software on its operating systems because it is anti-competitive, alternative versions of Windows 10 have been released which have removed some features such as Windows Media Player.
Fortunately, you can still install Windows Media Player 12 on a Windows 10 N PC by downloading the official Media Feature Pack from the Microsoft website.
Then press on Download and select the version of the installation file, whether 32 bit or 64 bit.
To find out if Windows is 64 bit, press the Windows + R keys together, write the dxdiag command and press OK.
The DirectX diagnostic tool will tell us if the Windows version is 32 or 64 bit.
The download file for Windows 32 bit is called Microsoft-Windows-MediaFeaturePack-OOB-Package.msu .
The Media Feature Pack for Windows 10 64 bit, on the other hand, is called Microsoft-Windows-MediaFeaturePack-OOB-Package_x64.msu .
Go Next and then, at Download complete, run the file to proceed with the installation via Windows Update.
Note that this procedure will also install the Skype, Voice Recorder and Groove Music apps, as well as several other codecs and a Video application.
The complete list of programs included in the Media Feature Pack can be found on this page.
Bear in mind, however, that Windows Media Player hasn't been updated for years and Microsoft may even decide to abandon it and not even release security patches anymore making it an insecure program.
In addition, alternatives to Windows Media Player are not lacking, both to watch videos and to listen to music.
We talked about these two categories of software in several articles including:
- Best Programs to watch movies and videos on the PC
- Best programs to listen to music on your PC (Windows)
One of the best media players that you can download is VLC media player, open source and capable of ewowing practically all existing audio or video files.
The problem that Microsoft had with Windows Media Player, is not linked so much to a technical decision, but rather to the fine derived from the accusation of having exploited the dominant position in pre-installing software at the expense of other multimedia file reproduction software.
For this reason, Microsoft has no longer released updates for WMP and in Windows 10, has given up the audio and video recorder program, has created a new app to listen to music instead of Windows Media Player, instead giving up on including a new application. to watch videos and DVDs.
It was also forced to release, in the European market, a version of Windows 10 called Windows 10 N, without Windows Media Player .
Windows Media Player 12 is the latest version of this program, no longer updated since 2009 and which may even disappear entirely in the future.
For the moment, however, you can still download Windows Media Player 12 for Windows 10 (in Windows 7 and 8.1 it is still included in the standard installation).
Where Windows Media Player ended up in Windows 10 "> reinstall Windows Media Player without needing to download it.
In Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Pro, you can enable the Windows Media Player 12 program by opening the Settings from the Start menu, then in the Apps section, press on the right side on Manage optional features .
Then press on Add a feature, scroll down to find Windows Media Player, select it and install it.
The same thing can also be done from Control Panel> Programs and Features, click on the link on the left " Activating and deactivating Windows functionality ", select Multimedia Features and then Windows Media Player from the list and press OK.
Download Windows Media Player 12 to Windows 10 N
As, as mentioned above, the European Commission has established that Microsoft could not pre-install some of its software on its operating systems because it is anti-competitive, alternative versions of Windows 10 have been released which have removed some features such as Windows Media Player.
Fortunately, you can still install Windows Media Player 12 on a Windows 10 N PC by downloading the official Media Feature Pack from the Microsoft website.
Then press on Download and select the version of the installation file, whether 32 bit or 64 bit.
To find out if Windows is 64 bit, press the Windows + R keys together, write the dxdiag command and press OK.
The DirectX diagnostic tool will tell us if the Windows version is 32 or 64 bit.
The download file for Windows 32 bit is called Microsoft-Windows-MediaFeaturePack-OOB-Package.msu .
The Media Feature Pack for Windows 10 64 bit, on the other hand, is called Microsoft-Windows-MediaFeaturePack-OOB-Package_x64.msu .
Go Next and then, at Download complete, run the file to proceed with the installation via Windows Update.
Note that this procedure will also install the Skype, Voice Recorder and Groove Music apps, as well as several other codecs and a Video application.
The complete list of programs included in the Media Feature Pack can be found on this page.
Bear in mind, however, that Windows Media Player hasn't been updated for years and Microsoft may even decide to abandon it and not even release security patches anymore making it an insecure program.
In addition, alternatives to Windows Media Player are not lacking, both to watch videos and to listen to music.
We talked about these two categories of software in several articles including:
- Best Programs to watch movies and videos on the PC
- Best programs to listen to music on your PC (Windows)
One of the best media players that you can download is VLC media player, open source and capable of ewowing practically all existing audio or video files.
