Windows 11 will finally stop playing videos in ‘Movies & TV’ after users complained for years. Microsoft has been listening to its users and has decided to discontinue the feature because it is not useful or helpful. Windows 10 already had this feature disabled by default, so Windows 11 users will not have to worry about it. Windows 10 was released in July of this year and it was the first version of Windows that did not have the ‘Movies & TV’ feature. Microsoft said that they wanted to focus on other features in Windows 10, like Cortana and Edge. The ‘Movies & TV’ feature was added back in Windows 8.1, but many people did not like it because it took up a lot of space on the screen and it was difficult to use. The ‘Movies & TV’ feature was originally designed so that people could watch their favorite movies and television shows without having to go through all of the hassle of downloading them. However, many people found that the feature was useless because it would always be trying to play videos even if someone did not want them to be played. This caused a lot of frustration among users who wanted to use their computers for other things instead of watching videos all the time. Microsoft has decided that discontinuing the ‘Movies & TV’ feature is a better solution than continuing to try and fix something that is not working properly. Instead, they are focusing on other features in Windows 10 like Cortana and Edge which are more useful for users. ..
Microsoft introduced a new Media Player application in Windows 11 last year, which replaced the old ‘Groove’ music player. It mostly serves as a music library, similar to Apple’s iTunes and Music applications, but it can also play video files (and music without importing). Starting with Media Player 11.2206.30.0, which is currently being tested with Windows Insiders in the Windows 11 Dev Channel, Media Player is now the default application for opening video files on your PC instead of the ‘Movies & TV’ app.
The Movies & TV app was first included in Windows 10, primarily to play movies and shows purchased from the Microsoft Store. It also replaced the classic Windows Media Player as the default application for opening video and audio files, though it still doesn’t have many playback options, and Windows Media Player continued to be included in Windows 10. Microsoft made the older Windows Media Player an optional download in Windows 11.
Speaking of the classic Windows Media Player, the new Media Player is also receiving one of its best features: the ability to rip CD discs. You can choose between AAC, WMA, FLAC, and ALAC format when importing music from a CD, and multiple bitrate options are available. It’s funny to think of CD ripping as a new feature in 2022, but CDs are still around, and people with Windows 11 now won’t have to reinstall the ancient Windows Media Player (or download a third-party tool) to copy the contents.
It looks like Microsoft is positioning the new Media Player as the main application for multimedia on Windows, which is certainly better than the mishmash of three apps (old Media Player, Groove, and Movies & TV) that we had on Windows 10. The Movies & TV application isn’t going away, though — in fact, Microsoft is adding native Arm64 support for the app in the Windows 11 Dev Channel.
Source: Windows Blog
