Microsoft’s new Media Player for Windows 11 is drawing criticism now that tests have found it to use far more memory than the classic Windows Media Player. Moreover, the new player hides some popular codecs behind paywalls.
The modern Media Player is said to use around 377MB of RAM when idle, compared to roughly 103MB for the old player—about 3.5x as much memory while doing absolutely nothing. The program takes longer to open local video files, with startup time increasing roughly 50% from about two seconds on the legacy player to three seconds on the new one, per Windows Latest’s tests.
The controversy doesn’t stop at performance. Microsoft now paywalls HEVC (H.265) playback through the paid “HEVC Video Extensions” app in the Microsoft Store. Microsoft has also confirmed that Windows 11 version 24H2 removes the built‑in AC‑3 (Dolby Digital) codec, which means the new Media Player on those systems cannot play AC‑3 audio tracks natively.
This new software replaces Groove Music and the classic Windows Media Player across all Windows 11 PCs. Microsoft still offers the classic Windows Media Player as an optional component, but it’s clearly pushing the new Media Player as the default choice for most users.
Those who don’t mind going third-party might want to look at players like VLC, which ship their own codecs and don’t depend on Microsoft’s paid add-ons.
