A media player is a type of software program that is able to play media files including videos/movies, audio/songs/music, as well as photos/pictures/graphics.
Does Windows 11 Have Media Player?
Does Windows 11 have a media player? The answer is “yes”. Does Windows 11 have Windows Media Player? Of course! Windows 11 have built-in media players.
#1 Media Player (New)
First of all, Windows 11 operating system has a self-contained media player called Media Player, which was developed by Microsoft and was designated as a Windows media player in the Microsoft Store. It is a default video and audio player for the latest Win11.
Media Player is the successor to previously Windows Media Player (WMP), Microsoft Movies & TV, and Groove Music for Windows 10 (formerly Xbox Music).
Media Player vs. Groove Music
Compared with Groove Music, Media Player can also play videos, its album cover view is full-screen, and it has a refresh to the mini player. Accessibility has also been optimized with some improved shortcuts and hotkey support for keyboard users and with other assistive technologies.
#2 Windows Media Player (Old)
Is Windows Media Player in Windows 11? Yes, it is! Windows Media Player is the first media player and library tool created by Microsoft for playing videos, audio, and images on computers that are running the Windows operating system. It is also applied on Pocket PC and Windows Mobile-based devices. Moreover, editions for Windows Media Player were also released for classic Mac OS, Mac OS X, and Solaris (the development of those has since been discontinued).
In Windows 8, Windows Media Player was replaced by Groove Music, which persisted in Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 and later was replaced by Media Player in Windows 11.
However, Windows 11 still has the old Windows Media Player embedded and you can still access it in the newest Win11. The most recent version of Windows Media Player on Windows 11 is Windows Media Player 12, which was released on October 22, 2009, along with Windows 7.
Windows Media Player hasn’t been updated since then. Instead, Windows 8/8.1/10 uses Groove Music for playing audio and Microsoft Movies & TV for playing videos.
Where Is Windows Media Player in Windows 11?
Now that Windows 11 does have media players, then where are they? Actually, they are preinstalled on your devices, and you can directly take advantage of them when you need to play a video or song. You can find the old Windows Media Player in the Program Files in your C drive when it is still installed and enabled on your computer. Yet, you can’t find the new Media Player there.
![[3+5 Ways] How to Open Windows 11 New & Legacy Media Player?](https://images.minitool.com/moviemaker.minitool.com/images/uploads/2022/10/open-windows-11-media-player-thumbnail.png)
Third-Party Media Player for Windows 11
In addition to the built-in media players in Windows 11, there are a lot of non-official media players that can be used in Windows 11 like VLC Media Player, Media Player Classic, and PotPlayer.
#1 VLC Media Player
VLC Media Player is an open-source and free-of-charge, cross-platform, and portable media player and streaming media server. It is developed by the VideoLAN project. VLC is applicable for desktop operating systems (e.g. Windows 11) and mobile devices (e.g. Android, iOS, iPadOS).
#2 Media Player Classic
Media Player Classic is a family of free and open-source, compact, lightweight, and customizable media players for both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows operating systems such as Windows 11. Its series include Media Player Classic, Media Player Classic – Home Cinema, and Media Player Classic – Black Edition.
#3 PotPlayer
PotPlayer is a multimedia software player designed by the South Korean Internet company Kakao for Microsoft Windows. It has a wide range of settings and customizations. PotPlayer is lightweight and it supports a large variety of media formats.
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About The Author
Position: Columnist
Helen enjoys the process of turning video clips and photos about herself into beautiful videos. Then, she will share the videos on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc. The most exciting thing is to see the increasing number of views of her videos. Helen is willing to share her ideas about making wonderful videos from scratch. Thus, she writes articles for MiniTool Technology.