I’m afraid to upgrade to Windows 10 because I heard that Microsoft has axed Windows Media Player and I have a ton of music in WMP I want to be able to play. What’s the story?
First off, let’s assuage any anxiety here: Windows Media Player is most assuredly a part of Windows 10 from Microsoft and is included in every distribution of the system. As you point out, how else would you be able to listen to all that music you have saved on your computer or laptop? Well, there is Apple’s iTunes for Windows, but let’s get real… 🙂
Having said that, there is some functionality that fell out of Windows Media Player on the upgrade from Windows 8 to Windows 10, and if you’re jumping from Win7 to Win10, well, you might be surprised the first time you put a DVD into your computer and have an error message about there being no way to play the DVD. The difference is that there’s no Windows Media Center, so while your music’s fine, your movies aren’t so much.
In fact, put in a DVD and it’ll just say there’s no associated program. You can buy Windows DVD Player for Windows 10 from Microsoft through the App Store, but it’s just as easy to grab VLC for free, and as a bonus, VLC is a lot more capable…
That’s why there’s a lot of confusion about Windows Media Player, but it’s misplaced.
Let’s have a quick look. In Windows 10, click on the Cortana / Win10 Search box and type in “Window Media Player“:
See? There it is! Click on “Windows Media Player” and…
Phew. Just like expected, with music, videos, pictures, and more. Play something and click on the mini-window button (the three boxes and tiny arrow on the lower right corner) and you’ll even have a neat little floating window:
Simple and easy, just as we’d hope from a music app.
To make life simpler next time you want to launch WMP10, move your cursor over the program icon on the Taskbar:
Oops. I mean right-click on the icon on the task bar:
Now choose “Pin this program to the taskbar” and forevermore you’ll have the tiny little white and orange ‘play’ button sitting on your Windows 10 taskbar, ready for you to launch and enjoy your music, videos and photos.
Hope that helps you out!
I was looking for a video that I made a while back and they were all in WMP.. In Window’s 10 there is NOTHING in there. How can I find all my stuff??
Win 10 seems to have omitted key controllers in Windows Media Player : I can no longer locate the equalizer and the WOW and other enhancements (?).
Microsoft have got rid of windows media player and created film & tv and groove. to be really honest why get rid of something when it is not broke, plus windows media player classic is great for watching dvds. this screw around with wmp is for internet generation , everything is multi format so you can access any information on any device. why don’t people just keep it on your home pc or work pc , people can not live off line anymore & don’t want a life like in the old days.
I downloaded and installed Windows 10 4 days ago. Just tried your solution today (7-27-16) and the Cortana search yielded only web searches, leaving out the top item from your screenshot “Windows Media Player, desktop app.” What did I miss here?
Media player seems to be gone from the anniversary update (1607) of Win 10.
I can’t find it after the update.
But my I tunes pathway has been scrambled and I cannot delete it or reload a new one now. I have lost Itunes in Windows 10.
Not sure how you can lose iTunes, Ralph, but what if you uninstall it then redownload and re-install it?
Dave, you do create some confusion in your article, at least in my mind (and I know and understand what it is you are saying!). First you say “Windows Media Player is most assuredly a part of Windows 10″, then in the next paragraph you say ” The difference is that there’s no Windows Media Player”. To me, that’s contradictory. I think that’s what the earlier commenter was trying to get at. You might want to say something like “there’s no DVD playback capability in Windows Media Player in Windows 10”, or something to that effect.
Thanks for all the good info you provide!
Bob
Ah, a typo. Well spotted, Bob, and corrected. Thanks!
One aspect of Windows Media Player that you have omitted is the ability to show live TV (with an appropriate adapter). This functionality has definitely disappeared from Windows 10.
If you can give some guidance on this aspect it would be gratefully appreciated as I’m locked in Win 7 for the time being.
I think you meant to say: “The difference is that there’s no Windows Media ***CENTER*** , so while your music’s fine, your movies aren’t so much.”
No, Adam, look at my screenshots: your movies are still shown in WMP in Windows 10, it’s just DVDs that you insert into your computer that are left in the cold…