Windows Media Player (2022)

  1. Home
  2. Wiki
This article is about the media player featured in Windows 10 and 11. For the media player featured prior to Windows 11, see Windows Media Player.
Media Player
DeveloperMicrosoft
Initial releaseNovember 16, 2021; 4 years ago (2021-11-16)
Stable releaseOctober 2025 Update (11.2510.7.0) (3 December 2025; 12 days ago (2025-12-03)[1]) [±]
Operating systemWindows 10, 11
PlatformIA-32 (Windows 10 only), x86-64, AArch64
PredecessorGroove Music
Microsoft Movies & TV
Windows Media Player

Media Player (also known as Windows Media Player in the Microsoft Store[2]) is a media player software for Windows, developed by Microsoft. Written in Windows App SDK, it is built upon Groove Music to add video playback and it’s a modern replacement of the original Windows Media Player. It was first released in January 2022, built for Windows 11 and later released to Windows 10 on January 2023, and it replaces several separate apps.

History

[edit]

A new Media Player from Microsoft was first leaked in September 2021, a few days before the retail release of Windows 11.[3] It was eventually released on November 16, 2021, to Windows 11 Insider (testing) channels,[4] with Windows 11 initially shipping without the new Media Player. Eventually it started rolling out to all Windows 11 users as a software update in January 2022.[5][6]

Media Player is the successor to Groove Music (previously Xbox Music), Microsoft Movies & TV, and the original Windows Media Player. Unlike the first two, Media Player is a straightforward player for local content and not tied in with an online media service.[7]

The new Media Player was later released to Windows 10 users in January 2023 and replaced Groove Music through an update.[8]

Features

[edit]

Media Player, a UWP app built on Groove Music, adds support for video files, as part of Groove Music's rebranding from a music streaming service to a media player.[9] Other changes to the app include the album cover view being in fullscreen, and a refresh to the mini player.[10] Accessibility has also been optimized in this new version, with some improved keyboard shortcuts and hotkey support for keyboard users and with other assistive technologies.[11]

Some features from the original Windows Media Player were initially not included, such as DLNA local streaming and the ripping of CDs. Ripping was eventually reintroduced in July 2022 for Windows 11, supporting the AAC, WMA, FLAC, and ALAC formats.[12]

Supported formats

[edit]

This is a list of known supported formats in Media Player on Windows 10 and Windows 11.[13][14][15]

List of supported audio formats
File Container File Extension Number of channels
MPEG-1 Audio Layer III
MPEG-2 Audio Layer III 		.mp3 2
Free Lossless Audio Codec .flac 2
Raw AAC stream
Audio Data Interchange Format (ADIF)
Audio Data Transport Stream (ADTS) 		.aac, .adt, .adts 2
MPEG-4 audio-only file (AAC) .m4a, .m4r 5.1
Waveform Audio File Format .wav 2
Windows Media Audio .wma 5.1
Dolby AC-3 .ac3 5.1
Enhanced Audio Codec 3 .ec3 15
3GP and 3G2 .3gp, .3g2 2
Adaptive Multi-Rate .amr 2
CD-Audio track .cda 2
Matroska audio-only file .mka 2
Music Module file .mod 4
MPEG-2 audio file .mpa 2
Ogg audio-only file
(may contain various Xiph formats such as: Ogg FLAC, OggPCM, Ogg Vorbis, Ogg Opus)[16] 		.oga 2
Ogg container (Vorbis) .ogg 2
Ogg container (Opus) .opus 2
Dolby AC-4 .ac4 7.1.4
DTS Audio .dts 5.1 and more
List of supported video formats
File Container File Extension Notes
MPEG-4 video
Apple MPEG-4 video
(MPEG-4 Part 2, H.264, H.265, AV1) 		.mp4, .m4v, .mp4v Dolby Vision, H.265, and AV1 playback require installation of an add-on from Microsoft Store.
DTS Audio playback requires DTS Sound Unbound from Microsoft Store with a DTS:X Decoder license.
QuickTime File Format .mov
Advanced Systems Format .asf
Audio Video Interleave .avi
Windows Media Video .wmv
BDAV MPEG-2 Transport Stream .m2ts, .m2t, .mts
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 video file .mpeg, .mpg, .mpe, .mp2, .mp2v, .m1v, .m2v, .ts Requires installation of the MPEG-2 add-one from the Microsoft Store.
JVC Everio Video Capture File .tod
3GP and 3G2 .3g2, .3gp, .3gp2, .3gpp
Matroska video .mkv
WebM (VP8, VP9, AV1) .webm AV1 playback requires installation of add-on from the Microsoft Store.
Ogg container (Theora) .ogv
Ogg media file .ogm
DivX video file .divx
Xvid video file .xvid
List of supported streaming protocols
Streaming Protocol URL Identifier
Shoutcast / Icecast (ICY) —
HTTP Live Streaming (HLS)[17] .m3u8

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Windows Media Player". Microsoft Apps. Retrieved 2025-12-03.
  2. ^ "Windows Media Player – Free download and install on Windows". Microsoft Store.
  3. ^ Parmar, Mayank (2021-09-28). "Microsoft accidentally teases new Media Player for Windows 11". Windows Latest. Retrieved 2025-11-05.
  4. ^ Warren, Tom (2021-11-16). "Windows 11 is getting a new Media Player app you can test today". The Verge. Retrieved 2025-11-05.
  5. ^ Baxter, Daryl (September 29, 2021). "Microsoft accidentally shows off a new Media Player for Windows 11". TechRadar. Retrieved June 9, 2023.
  6. ^ Baxter, Daryl (January 5, 2022). "New and improved Windows Media Player is rolling out to Windows 11 users". TechRadar. Retrieved June 9, 2023.
  7. ^ Huculak, Mauro (2021-12-01). "How to get started with the Media Player app on Windows 11 (preview)". Windows Central. Retrieved 2025-11-05.
  8. ^ Baxter, Daryl (January 13, 2023). "The beat stops for Groove Music in Windows 10 as it's replaced by Media Player". TechRadar. Retrieved February 24, 2023.
  9. ^ Holt, Kris (November 17, 2021). "Microsoft is replacing Windows Media Player with Media Player for Windows 11". Engadget. Retrieved November 18, 2021.
  10. ^ "Full screen album art". Microsofters. 16 November 2021.
  11. ^ "Optimized accessibility". Windows Insider Blog. 16 November 2021. At the heart of Media Player is a full-featured music library that allows you to quickly browse and play music, as well as create and manage playlists. If your music collection is in Groove Music today, your library and playlists will automatically migrate to this new experience.
  12. ^ Parmar, Mayank (2022-07-14). "Windows 11 now lets you easily rip CD with new Media Player". Windows Latest. Retrieved 2023-10-23.
  13. ^ Muchmore, Michael (March 22, 2022). "Windows 11's New Media Player Brings Big Improvements to Audio and Video". PCMag.
  14. ^ "Supported audio and video formats (Windows Runtime apps) - Windows app development". Microsoft Docs. 13 October 2015.
  15. ^ "Supported codecs - UWP applications". Microsoft Docs. 15 November 2024.
  16. ^ "MIME Types and File Extensions". XiphWiki.
  17. ^ "HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) tag support – UWP applications". learn.microsoft.com.