The latter was renamed Groove Music in Windows 10, and then finally Media Player in Windows 11. Windows 8 bundled Windows Media Player 12 along two other media player apps, namely Xbox Video and Xbox Music. Windows Media Player 12 was released on October 22, 2009, along with Windows 7 and has not been made available for previous versions of Windows nor has it been updated ever since. The player is also able to utilize a digital rights management service in the form of Windows Media DRM. The default file formats are Windows Media Video (WMV), Windows Media Audio (WMA), and Advanced Systems Format (ASF), and its own XML based playlist format called Windows Playlist ( WPL). It was made available for Windows XP and is included in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.

Windows Media Player 11 is the last out-of-band version of Media Player. These versions of Windows also included several other media playback apps, namely ActiveMovie Control, CD Player, DVD Player, Windows Media Center, and Microsoft Movies & TV. For example Media Player versions 5.1, 6.4, and 8 were all included in Windows XP. Windows Media Player is a unique component, in that since 1999, each version of Windows came with two or more versions of it side-by-side. In addition to being a media player, the app has the ability to rip audio file from and copy to compact discs, burn recordable discs in Audio CD format or as data discs with playlists such as an MP3 CD, synchronize content with a digital audio player (MP3 player) or other mobile devices, and enable users to purchase or rent music from a number of online music stores. Windows Media Player icon used in Windows XP.

Windows 10 power media player