Microsoft kills legacy DRM support on Windows Media Player, Windows 7/ 8, Silverlight

Recently, Microsoft gave the first official on-record confirmation about the apparent impending doom of the Windows Control Panel. After widespread media coverage of it though, the company soon removed the portion and replaced it with something much more non-specific.

As the company contemplates Control Panel's future, it looks like the Redmond giant is ready to lay Legacy DRM (Digital Rights Management) services to rest once and for all. This will affect the legacy Windows Media Player, Silverlight clients, Windows 7 and Windows 8. Microsoft does not specifically mention Windows 8.1 in this list so users still running the OS should be able to enjoy the features for a while.

The legacy Windows Media Player has been supplanted by the new Media Player on newer Windows versions.

It writes:

Legacy DRM services, used by either Windows Media Player, Silverlight clients, Windows 7, or Windows 8 clients are deprecated. The following functionality won't work when these services are fully retired:

• Playback of protected content in the legacy Windows Media Player on Windows 7
• Playback of protected content in a Silverlight client and Windows 8 clients
• Ih-home[sic] streaming playback from a Silverlight client or Windows 8 client to an Xbox 360
• Playback of protected content ripped from a personal CD on Windows 7 clients using Windows Media Player

Microsoft introduced Windows Media DRM (WMDRM) version 1 in 1999 with Windows 98. This is what the company refers to as its legacy DRM solution. Microsoft regularly updated WMDRM and the technology stuck around till Windows 7 and Windows 8. This was back in 2007 which is also when the company debuted PlayReady, the successor to WMDRM.

Also with this announcement, Microsoft has added that Silverlight clients will not be supported. The tech giant, back in 2021, had already announced the end of Silverlight 5.

For those who may not be aware, Silverlight was a web application framework for the development of Rich Internet Applications (RIA) for Web pages. It was introduced in 2007 and was similar to Adobe's Flash. Since its debut, Silverlight has been using PlayReady as its native DRM system.