Image: Microsoft
Microsoft is now rolling out a new media player that matches Windows 11’s look and feel as a replacement for the Windows 10 Groove Music and (in the future) the legacy Windows Media Player app.
The rollout started Tuesday, with the new player to be automatically installed as an update through the Microsoft Store to Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel.
Once installed, the newly released Windows 11 Media Player will replace the Groove Music app automatically.
For Windows Insiders who still use the legacy Windows Media Player, it will remain available in Windows Tools at least until Microsoft has included enough of its functionality and features in the new media player app for Windows 11.
“Media Player beautifully showcases your local music and video collections and compliments the new look and feel of Windows 11,” said Dave Grochocki, Windows Inbox Apps Principal Program Manager Lead.
“All your content in the music and video folders on your PC will appear automatically in your library, but you can also tell Media Player where to look for additional content in app settings.”
The new player comes with album art for audio tracks and full-featured audio and video library that allows you to browse and play your music and movies.
Once installed, it will migrate your playlists and library from Groove Music if you’ve been using it to manage your music collection.
Media Player will automatically add all your video and audio folders to its library, and it will also allow you to add custom folders with more content.
Microsoft has also improved accessibility for the new player with the inclusion of more assistive tech and better keyboard shortcut and access key support.
Redmond is still polishing the newly added Windows 11 app, with metadata editing and UI issues waiting for a fix in a future release.
“We are aware of an issue preventing playback from network locations, as well as issues that under certain circumstances impact editing album metadata, sorting library content with accented characters, and UI elements not respecting your app theme preference,” added Grochocki.
“Look out for future updates where we plan to add new ways to browse your music and video collections and manage your play queue, and of course, we look forward to hearing all your feedback on how to continue to improve the library and playback experiences.”
Yesterday, Microsoft also released Windows 10 21H2 (aka the November 2021 Update) as an optional update in Windows Update to users running Windows 10 2004 or later.
Windows Insiders in the Release Preview Channel can upgrade to Windows 10 Build 19044.1379 (21H2) / Build 19044.1379 (21H1), also released Tuesday with a long list of fixes for previously reported issues.
Source: www.bleepingcomputer.com