New Media Player for Windows 11 begins rolling out to Windows Insiders

Microsoft is starting to roll out in the Dev Channel of the Windows Insider Program, the New Media Player App for Windows 11 with a new design that matches the Windows 11 experience.

Media Player is a music library that allows you to quickly browse and play music, create and manage playlists. If your music collection is in Groove Music, your library and playlists will automatically migrate to this new app. The update to the new Media Player will replace the Groove Music app.

This New Media Player App brings new dedicated playback view features, as well as mini player experiences.

Media Player includes full support for browsing, managing, and watching your local video collection. All your content in the music and video folders on your PC will appear automatically in your library, but you can also tell Media Player where to look for additional content in app settings.

Microsoft also optimized the app for accessibility, with improved keyboard shortcut and access key support for keyboard users.

The old Windows Media Player will continue to be available in Windows, but as a separate app.

If you are on the Dev Channel of the Windows Insider Program, you should be getting this new app soon.

This first version has some issues as well. There’s an issue preventing playback from network locations, as well as issues that under certain circumstances impact editing album metadata, sorting library content with accented characters, and UI elements not respecting your app theme preference.

How to Install the Media Player App

First of all, you have to make sure that you have the latest Windows 11 Insider Preview Build for the Dev Channel, which is Build 22499. You can check the Build, by typing winver into the Windows 11 Search.

Now check for updates in your Microsoft Store. Go into the Library section and then click on Get Updates. If you don’t receive any new app, check the next steps.

Go to this website which provides all the Microsoft Store packages and switch to PackageFamilyName on the left side. In the right side, select Slow.

In the field enter the following value:

Microsoft.ZuneMusic_8wekyb3d8bbwe

Find and download the latest link that you find for the Microsoft.ZuneMusic_11.2110.34.0_neutral_~_8wekyb3d8bbwe.msixbundle

After you download the file, just double click on it and it will be installed using the App Installer from Windows 11.

For a more in-depth presentation of the New Media Player App in Windows 11, you can check the video below from the youtube channel.