Microsoft brings new media player to beta Windows 11

Microsoft has made the revamped Windows Media Player available to Insider users running Windows 11 in the beta channel. A new version of Windows 11 in the dev channel did not appear due to quality issues.

The updated Windows Media Player will be available to more users thanks to the Beta Channel release of the Insider Preview of Windows 11. Microsoft announced its arrival to the beta in an update to its original announcement of the new version of the media player. With its release in November last year, the company brought the player to Windows 11’s Dev Channel. After that, other Insider users of Windows 11 Build 22000.346 or later could already install Windows Media Player manually via command line.

The updated Windows Media Player will replace Groove Music and provide access to the local music library and collection of video files. The app also has a thumbnail view. After the update, the classic Windows Media Player is only available via Windows Tools. That player remained in Windows 10 and 11 after the arrival of Groove Music, but suffered a dormant existence with no feature updates in the classic Windows environment.

There was no new release of Windows 11 in the Dev Channel this week, as the company says it not up to quality requirements complied. The company did not provide further details.