Windows Media Player (2022)
Windows Media Player is a video and audio player developed by Microsoft for Windows 11 and subsequently backported to Windows 10. It is the successor to Groove Music (previously Xbox Music), Microsoft Movies & TV and the original Windows Media Player. It was offered to all Windows 11 users starting on February 15, 2022, with Windows 10 users following in January 2023.[1][2]
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![]() Media Player running on Windows 11 in Light mode | |
| Developer(s) | Microsoft |
|---|---|
| Preview release | Windows 11: 11.2212.31.0
|
| Operating system | Windows 10, Windows 11 |
| Predecessor | Groove Music |
The new Media Player can also play video, as part of Groove's rebranding from a music streaming service to a media player.[3] Other changes include the album cover view being in fullscreen, and a refresh to the mini player.[4] Accessibility has also been optimized, with some improved keyboard shortcuts and hotkey support for keyboard users and with other assistive technologies.[5]
Supported formats
This is a list of known supported formats in Media Player on Windows 10 and Windows 11.[6][7][8]
| File Container | File Extension |
|---|---|
| MPEG-1 Audio Layer III MPEG-2 Audio Layer III |
.mp3 |
| Free Lossless Audio Codec | .flac |
| Raw AAC stream Audio Data Interchange Format (ADIF) Audio Data Transport Stream (ADTS) |
.aac, .adt, .adts |
| MPEG-4 audio-only file (AAC) | .m4a |
| Waveform Audio File Format | .wav |
| Windows Media Audio | .wma |
| Dolby AC-3 | .ac3 |
| 3GP and 3G2 | .3gp, .3g2 |
| Adaptive Multi-Rate | .amr |
| Matroska audio-only file | .mka |
| Ogg audio-only file | .oga |
| Ogg container (Vorbis) | .ogg |
| Ogg container (Opus) | .opus |
| File Container | File Extension | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| MPEG-4 video Apple MPEG-4 video (MPEG-4 Part 2, H.264, H.265, AV1) |
.mp4, .m4v | Dolby Vision, H.265 and AV1 playback requires installation of add-on from Microsoft Store. DTS Audio playback requires DTS Sound Unbound from Microsoft Store with 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 | |
| 3GP and 3G2 | .3g2, .3gp2, .3gpp | |
| Matroska video | .mkv | |
| WebM (VP8, VP9, AV1) | .webm | AV1 playback requires installation of add-on from Microsoft Store. |
| Ogg container (Theora) | .ogv | |
See also
- Groove Music – UWP-based music player; predecessor of Media Player for Windows 10 and Windows 11
- Microsoft Movies & TV – UWP-based video player and online store
- Windows Media Player – Win32-based "classic" media player app
References
- "Media Player is available for Windows 11". 16 November 2021.
- Baxter, Daryl (January 13, 2023). "The beat stops for Groove Music in Windows 10 as it's replaced by Media Player". TechRadar. Future US. Retrieved February 24, 2023.
- "Microsoft is replacing Windows Media Player with Media Player for Windows 11". Engadget. Retrieved 2021-11-18.
- "Full screen album art". 16 November 2021.
- "Optimized accessibility". 16 November 2021.
- Windows 11's New Media Player Brings Big Improvements to Audio and Video - PCMag
- "Supported audio and video formats (Windows Runtime apps) - Windows app development". Microsoft Docs.
- "Supported codecs - UWP applications". Microsoft Docs.

