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Windows 10 Update Removes Windows Media Player (betanews.com)
Recently made available Windows 10 update KB4046355 for the Fall Creators Update disables Windows Media Player from the operating system. BetaNews reports: While it could be argued that Windows Media Player is no longer an essential addition to Windows -- there are plenty of quality third-party alternatives, such as VLC Media Player, not to mention the Films & TV app in Windows 10 itself -- many users still rely on it. The feature's removal came to light when users installed KB4046355 on devices running Windows 10 version 1709 -- the Fall Creators Update. This update, referred to as FeatureOnDemandMediaPlayer, removes Windows Media Player from the OS, although it doesn't kill access to it entirely. If you want the media player back you can install it via the Add a Feature setting. Open Settings, go to Apps > Apps & Features, and click on Manage optional features.
These feature removals mostly seem troublesome at a locked down PC environment at school or work where you can't install anything. So while not disastrous, it is certainly annoying when you can't do some trivial thing on a computer without admin rights on it.
Depends on your applications, obviously. It fucking sucks that if you want an alternative, you have to really work at it and there's always some use case that you just can't get around. That said, win8 is probably the least worst option if you're stuck with Windows.
If your objection to win8 is the UI stupidity, you can fix a large amount of the stupid with ClassicShell and some time tweaking settings. Not all of it, but it's a good start. As a bonus, with win8 it's not that rough fixing the spyware issues, doesn't even require third-party tools. Does require hitting up services and task scheduler and some time reading, and of course you have to re-check everything after every round with windows update, but it can be managed.
If you have some other issue with win8, discuss?
Win7 is getting a bit long in the tooth and hit and miss for being able to get support on some newer hardware. It it's not dead yet, but ...
Personally, it's been easier to just move over to Linux for general use. Slackware here, as it's where I started back in '93. No systemd, and not happening any time soon. Gnome got dropped a long time ago, though libraries are available as needed and last I looked there were two different third-party options for a complete gnome desktop install. Slackware has been infected by Pulse, but since Pulse is no longer Lennart's chew-toy, it's had a chance to get straightened out and by now is usually more help than hindrance. I will say fuck NetworkManager with a rusty spoon. It's not as much of a flaming pile of radioactive dogshit as it used to be, but it still finds new and interesting ways to fall down. Generally I don't install it on non-mobile systems, as it's slightly less of a pain than editing rc files when swapping AP's on wifi.
Hackintosh is a viable option if you do your research and get well-supported hardware up front. Pay less in cash, pay more in time, and really not appropriate at the office. Oy, wonderful trade-offs there.
Seriously though, if you're really stuck on Windows, spending the time to unfuck a default win8.1 install is probably a better option than just accepting 10. yes, it'll be some effort on maintenance and paranoia checking your settings (and services, and task scheduler) but weigh that against the forced random reboots and unexpected app breakage or forced uninstalls that STILL happen with 10.
When you live in a sick society, just about everything you do is wrong.
I too prefer VLC, but at some point they *REMOVED* support for playing MIDI files. WMP still does this fine.
It's much much better, especially on Mac/Linux when it uses youtube-dl to support all these by default: https://rg3.github.io/youtube-.... Need a music player? Use Clementine.