Earlier this year, Microsoft confirmed that Windows Media Center (WMC) had reached the end of the road, with no further updates in development, and no direct replacement in the company"s new OS, Windows 10. Microsoft said that most people who were still using WMC were doing so only to watch DVDs, and promised that it would deliver an alternative solution for those users.
Last week, the company revealed that those customers with versions of Windows 7 and 8.1 that supported Media Center would get a new Windows DVD Player app free of charge, and today, that app has made its way to the Windows Store.
If you don"t qualify for free installation, you can now buy the app from the Store for $14.99. But if you"re upgrading from an eligible earlier Windows version, you won"t actually need to visit the Store to get the app free.
Instead, the app will be automatically downloaded for you via Windows Update after you upgrade to Windows 10. However, the only way to get the app free is by upgrading from an earlier Windows version; if you do a clean install of Windows 10, you"ll have to pay the full $14.99 for the app from the Store.