New media player for Windows 11

Microsoft has started rolling out a new media player for Windows 11 to replace the Groove Music app.

The Media Player for Windows 11 is available to test for Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel.

Windows Inbox Apps principal programme manager lead, Dave Grochocki, explained the new app was designed to make listening to and watching multimedia content on Windows 11 more enjoyable.

“Media Player beautifully showcases your local music and video collections and compliments the new look and feel of Windows 11,” Grochocki said.

“At the heart of Media Player is a full-featured music library that allows you to quickly browse and play music, as well as create and manage playlists.”

“The dedicated playback view features album art and rich artist imagery; these will appear in the full screen and mini-player experiences as well,” he added.

The images below show what the full-screen and mini-player windows look like in the new Media Player app.

Grochocki said that the new Media Player boasts full support for browsing, managing, and watching local video collections.

“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,” he explained.

Users who have their music collection in Groove Music will find their library and playlists automatically migrated to the new experience.

In addition, accessibility has also been optimised, with new keyboard shortcuts and access key support for keyboard users, and other “assistive technologies”.

Given that the Media Player is still in testing, there might still be some early wrinkles that Microsoft needs to iron out.

Grochocki said Microsoft was aware of one issue preventing playback from network locations.

There are also issues that under certain circumstances impact editing album metadata, sorting library content with accented characters, and UI elements not respecting app theme preferences.

Those who prefer the legacy Windows Media Player will still be able to find it under Windows Tools.

Main Image: Windows 11