How To Play Dvd In Windows 10

You tin can play a DVD in Windows 10 for free with a petty help. But that help's probably all-time if it doesn't come from Microsoft. I'll tell you lot how Microsoft's solution sort-of works for some people. Then I'll tell you about the much better alternative called VLC that anyone can apply and gets regular updates. Best of all, it's free!

Updated March 22, 2019, with a second expect at the Windows Store app.

When Windows ten came forth in 2015, it left backside Windows Media Center, a utility for abode theater PCs that permit you lot play DVDs on your computer. Windows 8 didn't come up with it either, just users running Windows 8 Pro could still install Windows Media Middle.

Even that workaround is now gone. Windows Media Heart simply doesn't work. Microsoft offers an official solution for DVD playback, but, well, information technology'due south bad.

Windows DVD Role player from Microsoft is a $15 Windows Store app. It'southward a no-frills utility that should just work, simply when I tested the app it did anything but. I'm non the only ane who experienced this. Checking out the latest reviews, it appears the problems with Windows DVD Actor persist since its launch.

Windows DVD Player: Hitting or miss

Users who upgraded to Windows x from Windows 7, or from Windows viii with Windows Media Center, should've received a free copy of Windows DVD Thespian. Check the Windows Store, and you should exist able to download it for costless. If you've got a new PC, nonetheless, y'all're out of luck for this freebie.

A word of warning: I got Windows DVD Player for free later on upgrading from Windows 8.1 with Windows Media Middle in 2015. Once I did a clean install of Windows 10 afterward upgrading, yet, I lost the right to download Windows DVD Histrion for free.

That said, if you exercise fork over the $fifteen you can install the app on whatever of your Windows devices.

I tested Windows DVD Player with an Acer Aspire East xv laptop running Windows 10 Dwelling house version 1803, an internal DVD role player/burner, and five commercial DVDs.

Microsoft offers a 7-day costless trial in social club to exam the app. That'due south helpful, given that Microsoft doesn't offer refunds for its DVD player, just the trial version doesn't let you to play movies. Instead, it merely checks your system for "compatibility," a process that takes a few minutes.

The thought that DVD software in 2019 needs to run a compatibility check is ridiculous, simply at that place it is. In my tests on the Acer Aspire, the compatibility bank check didn't work. Instead of showing a "go/no get" result, the app simply kept crashing.

With no luck on the Acer, I turned to my trusty Lenovo X220 and an external Transcend standard DVD player/burner. This combo worked with Microsoft's DVD Role player app in 2015 and, as information technology turns out, still does. So to epitomize, my 7-year-old Sandy Bridge PC also running Windows 10 1803 was compatible, while an Acer Aspire with the more than modern Kaby Lake processor wasn't. Fashion to movement with the times, Microsoft.

windowsdvdplayer resized — Windows DVD Player in activity

So now that I know the DVD player works with the Lenovo, it's fourth dimension to invest $15 of PCWorld'southward difficult-earned money to see how it plays actual movies. All 5 DVDs I tested worked, ranging from studio movies to exercise videos. Once I inserted a deejay all I had to practise was fire up Windows DVD Player, and the disc started playing after a few minutes. Controls are piece of cake enough to manipulate with a mouse, and it covers all the nuts: play/pause, fast forrad, rewind, and chapter skipping. There are also controls hidden under three dots to jump back to the DVD menu.

I encountered one annoyance, where some DVD menus couldn't exist navigated properly. You'd click on the pick to play the full moving-picture show, and end up on a settings screen instead—the menu option correct beneath the one you wanted. This didn't happen with every DVD, but I did run across it one time or twice.

Because I now had a total version of the DVD thespian I decided to exam it on the Aspire E15 over again, simply in case the compatibility test was faulty. All those multiple crashes were correct, however, and the Acer failed to play the aforementioned five discs used on the Lenovo. That compatibility check is a key examination if yous're considering purchasing this app. Still, I wouldn't recommend wasting your money even if it does work.

For starters, the app is very bare-basic. The features and interface haven't changed much, if at all, since information technology commencement rolled out in 2015. Taking a look at the current reviews in the Windows Store, some users are also nonetheless experiencing playback bug. It'due south not even worth $0.99, allow lonely $15.

The good news for those of you who still desire to play DVDs in their PC is there'southward a much better free option available for PCs.

VideoLAN VLC for the win

If you're using a pre-congenital, boxed PC from a vendor like Dell or HP, your PC may already have a gratuitous commercial DVD playback solution installed.

If non, a meliorate culling to Microsoft's Windows 10 DVD Histrion is to plow to the free and always reliable VLC video player. Make sure yous download the desktop app and not the Windows Store version, which doesn't support DVDs or Blu-ray.

Once it'southward installed, open the programme, insert a DVD, and click on Media > Open Disc to sentry your DVDs.

Information technology's really that simple, though VLC packs surprising hidden powers for anyone who wants to dive a little deeper. VLC 3.0, for example, added the power to cast videos and music to Chromecast devices, 360-degree and HDR video back up, loftier-definition audio codec passthrough, and more.

Boosted reporting by Brad Chacos