Win 10 DVD Player Non-existent... REALLY???

[Caveman]

This was a mind blower to me... No native support in the OS to play a DVD? That seems ridiculous. Alas, what is the best solution? Google hasn't yielded much in the way of a good piece of freeware or even payware that's worth much. Certainly a board like this would have some recommendations...

 

[Ketchup]

I use VLC.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

I use VLC.

Easiest solution by far.

 

[Red Storm]

Seeing Microsoft trying to sell "Windows DVD Player" for $15 on their joke of an app store is one of the funniest things ever.

Use VLC.

 

[RLGL]

I use an old copy of Nero 2013

 

[bbhaag]

Obligatory "Whats a dvd?" post.....

Whats a dvd? I think my dad used those when I was younger.

 

[tcsenter]

Probably anti-trust issue. e.g. anti-competitive bundling. Microsoft gets sued or letters from the Department of Justice for things everyone else can get away with who is not a so-called "monopoly".

 

[mikeymikec]

Probably anti-trust issue. e.g. anti-competitive bundling. Microsoft gets sued or letters from the Department of Justice for things everyone else can get away with who is not a so-called "monopoly".

And yet there are two Microsoft web browsers in Windows 10, as well as a word processor, a Skype client and probably more.

 

[quikah]

DVD playback is patented, you need to pay royalties to legally distribute a DVD player. MS has chosen not to pay this.

 

[bruceb]

My Toshiba Laptop has a DVD Player software preinstalled (Toshiba Video Player Version 5.1.0.12A)

 

[tcsenter]

And yet there are two Microsoft web browsers in Windows 10, as well as a word processor, a Skype client and probably more.

Part of the legal test or standard used for anti-competitive bundling (e.g. how long has this been practiced and was everyone else doing it, too). Microsoft couldn't be expected to HARM its competitiveness if everyone else was including these things, too. Several of those things were in operating systems for almost as long as there has been commercial market for them, and was comparable to other (now defunct) operating systems which also bundled a word processor, audio recorder, graphics editor/creation, or whatever. e.g. Amiga, OS/2, Macintosh, Atari ST, et. al. all had some bundled features that could be or were essentially applications.

But a bigger crime is that the DVD consortium of IP owners after making a bazillion dollars on 20 y.o. technology can still charge enough for a fucking basic codec to make even a behemoth like Microsoft say "Meh....I guess we'll just pass then."

 

[VirtualLarry]

DVD playback is patented, you need to pay royalties to legally distribute a DVD player. MS has chosen not to pay this.

This is the correct answer. And if you upgraded in-place from Win7, you get the Win10 DVD Player app for free, since you already paid the licensing fee as part of Win7's cost, and Win7 included a DVD player.