You can do better
Now that you've upgraded to Windows 10, you might be wondering what options you have for playing DVDs. In the old days, that functionality was included in Windows, and as long as you had an optical drive capable of reading DVDs, you were golden.
That's not the case with Windows 10, and unlike Windows 8.1, you don't have the option of bolting on Microsoft's Windows Media Center Pack. WMC is dead and buried, though as Windows Central discovered, Windows 10 owners can now download Microsoft's official DVD Player app from the Windows Store...for $14.99.
"Windows DVD Player for Windows 10 makes it easy to watch your favorite DVDs. Watch both commercial and homemade discs in the DVD-Video format," Microsoft explains. "This app requires a DVD-capable optical drive."
If you're coming from Windows 7 Ultimate, Professional, Home Premium, or Windows 8.1 with Media Center and upgraded to Windows 10, you'll get the app for free as an automatic update (via Windows Update, of course). For everyone else, you have to pony up or seek an alternative app for watching DVDs.
Thankfully there are a few different options out there, not the least of which is VideoLAN's VLC media player. And yes, it works with Windows 10 on down to Windows XP SP2. With a little bit of work, you can also get it to play Blu-ray discs, something the Windows DVD Player won't do.
Brad Chacos, former contributing writer and now Senior Editor of PCWorld, notes that the Windows DVD Player is "buggy and light on features." We haven't kicked the tires on it ourselves, but with free solutions from third-party developers, there's really not much of a need to, either.
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From maximumpc
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