We have talked many times about Microsoft not including Windows Media Center from Windows 10 but did you know they have a Windows 10 DVD player app as a replacement? Microsoft says that the majority Windows Media Center usage was as a DVD player so the Windows 10 DVD player app is an alternative for Windows 10, anybody that has used Windows Media Center will know that that DVD playback is only a very minor part of Media Center’s feature set so the app isn’t really a replacement but if you want to watch a DVD it can be useful.

How do you get Windows DVD Player in Windows 10?

Well you don’t download the app from the Windows Store, there are number of conditions your system has to meet. First you have to upgrade from either Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, Ultimate or Windows 8.1 with Media Center Pack or Pro Pack. In other words if you had Windows Media Center before and then you upgrade to Windows 10 you will get the app which starts downloading after the upgrade process completes (on my machines it just showed up after the install).

You can’t get the app if you do a clean install but you can get it if you do an upgrade and choose not to keep files (which is a like a clean install). Another thing to note is that even if you do get the Windows DVD player app you will not get it on your other Windows 10 PCs, it is tied to your machine. Microsoft do say that you can buy the Windows DVD Player app in the Windows Store but currently it is not showing up on any of my machines.

What can you do with the Windows 10 DVD Player?

Well you can play DVDs on it and that is about it. You can’t play from an ISO or from the file system and you can’t play Blu-ray movies. There doesn’t seem to be any audio options but there is close caption support. You can play movies full screen or in a windows and that is about it.

If you do play DVDs you will probably want a 3rd party app like Cyberlink’s PowerDVD which has a lot more features and will play Blu-ray discs, the only thing the Windows 10 DVD player is any good for is basic playback. So a Windows Media Center replacement it is not but it’s ok for basic DVD playing.

 

 

 

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