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Windows 11's New Media Player Uses 3.5x More RAM, Charges for Popular Video Codecs
(www.extremetech.com)
this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2026
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In my case this is literally true, because the IoT editions of Windows don't even come with a bundled media player (nor a bundled photo viewer other than classic Paint, for what it's worth).
'classic' wmp can be 'enabled' on iot under optional windows features.
the old photo viewer is also still in the code but has to be enabled with a few registry entries.
but vlc and irfanview will support more formats.
i do still kinda like wmp, though, for mp3 and audio cd. its crossfade (audio or video playlist) is also the only thing i've found that keeps my tv from detecting 'no audio' and shutting down when i have manually blanked its screen (for audio only).