Your old media files deserve better than Windows Media Player

Windows Media Player (WMP) used to be the best. It didn’t quite whip the Llama’s behind, but I remember a time when it was fantastic. But, as these things tend to do, it got worse over time. Streaming came along, people shifted away from local media players, and Microsoft just shifted its focus elsewhere. Windows 11 replaced it with Media Player, but you can still access the legacy version of WMP. Better media players that could handle more formats appeared, and Microsoft kept breaking WMP features. WMP lost me completely last yearwhen I tried to rip a brand-new CD I bought and discovered the database that used to pull metadata no longer worked (the CD in question was Richard Thompson’s The Old Kit Bag, if you’re curious). Fortunately, there are a bunch of fantastic open-source alternatives. Here are some of my favorites.