14 DAY TRIAL // Windows Media Player appears to be the next name on the list of features to be deprecated from Windows 10, as Microsoft has started pushing users to the Movies & TV UWP app that comes pre-installed on the operating system.
A screenshot posted on reddit reveals that Microsoft is now showing popups to users launching Windows Media Player to highlight the capabilities of Movies & TV app, most likely in an attempt to migrate them to the new app in anticipation of a possible demise of the classic player.
“Open this in the new Windows 10 Video Player?” the popup reads before highlighting features like support for MKV and 4K files, longer battery life on laptops, mini view support, and 360 video support. There are two options to set the Movies & TV app as default or launch the app.
Leaving aside its terrible name, the Movies & TV app is quite a well-made alternative to Windows Media Player, though it goes without saying that it still needs a bunch of improvements.
Third-party alternatives
On the other hand, even if Windows Media Player goes dark, users have plenty of alternatives to choose from, including the already-famous VLC media player that comes with support for all Windows versions.
On Windows 10 S, however, where installing Win32 software is not possible, options are quite limited, and there are only a few similar apps in the Microsoft Store, which more or less pushes users to the Movies & TV app eventually.
As for the retirement of Windows Media Player, the application has barely received any improvements in the last few years, and its demise wouldn’t come out of the blue in the first place. Despite still working fine and serving as the daily driver for many users out there, Windows Media Player is more or less an outdated program, so it remains to be seen for how long it’ll continue to be available.
We’ve reached out to Microsoft to ask for more information on the company’s plans regarding WMP and will update the article if an answer is offered.