Are you from Europe or Korea? By default, Windows 10 will come without Windows Media Player and other media capabilities in these regions. These capabilities include playing and recording video and audio, creating audio CDs and video DVDs and manage playlists and music libraries. This is due to the laws of Europe and Korea. They do not permit the multimedia application to be pre-installed so that the competitors have a fair chance of competing against Microsoft’s media center and player. We have already explained the difference between Windows Editions including N and KN editions.
But these users can always install Windows Media Player and other multimedia functions if they don’t want to use third-party multimedia applications. Microsoft provides Media Feature Pack for every version of Windows 10 including the latest 1803 version. Media Feature Pack is the safest option for multimedia management as it’s provided by Microsoft and it can be fully integrated into Windows.
Although there is no big difference between normal Windows 10 and Windows 10 N/KN editions there are a few features that get disabled because they require Windows Media components to be installed to function properly. Microsoft has left these components non-functional in N/KN editions. If you install Media Feature Pack, these non-functional features will also start working. Some of the features that require WMP components include the following:
- OneDrive and Photos app can’t play videos without the media player.
- HomeGroup does not have streaming features in the absence of Windows Media Center and Player.
- Sound Recorder is limited to recording in WAV format only.
- Cortana speech interaction doesn’t work.
- Wireless display feature also gets disabled.
- PDF viewing in Edge browser stops working.
All these features will be enabled once Windows Media components are installed.
Download Media Feature Pack For Windows 10 N/KN versions
If we go to the Media Feature Pack download page from Microsoft, it only lists the download links for supported Windows versions. If you have an older version of Windows 10, you can use the download links below to download the feature pack:
Media feature pack for Windows 10 Version 1508
Media feature pack for Windows 10 Version 1511
Media feature pack for Windows 10 Version 1607
Media feature pack for Windows 10 Version 1703
Media feature pack for Windows 10 Version 1709
Media feature pack for Windows 10 Version 1803
Media feature pack for Windows 10 Version 1809
Media feature pack for Windows 10 Version 1903
Media feature pack for Windows 10 Version 1909
If you want to download the media feature pack for Windows 8 and Windows 8.1, you can visit this page.
1 comment
Largo
When you install an update (referred to as windows “feature update”, which increment the 4-digit windows version) for windows 10 KN or N, you take the risk of loosing the media pack you installed earlier.
When that happens, you have to install media pack again for your new version of windows.
itechtics provided on this page, the list of these windows updates (1803, 1709…) that removes Media Pack and a link to the new media pack that you must install.
Knowing this, you should be careful when you install the next version.
For instance, as of today, I see a notification that a new “feature update” is now out (version 1903)
Since I don’t know if version 1903 will remove Media Pack, I will wait to see if Microsoft update their media pack updates page. Live link below:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3145500/media-feature-pack-list-for-windows-n-editions
For the last windows update (version 1809, October 2018), the media pack update page was updated about a month later.