Media Feature Pack for Windows 10 N (November 2019)

Summary

This update provides support for media features in Windows 10 N. These include media-related technologies, such as Windows Media Player, and certain preinstalled media apps, such as Groove Music, Movies & TV, Voice Recorder, and Skype. You must install additional software from Microsoft to have this communication functionality and to play or to create audio CDs, media files, and video DVDs; to stream music; or to take and store pictures.

How to get this update

Microsoft Optional Features

The Media Feature Pack for N versions of Windows 10 is available for download as an Optional Feature. To install the Media Feature Pack, navigate to Settings > Apps > Apps and Features > Optional Features > Add a Feature, and then locate the Media Feature Pack in the list of available Optional Features.

Note Although you are not prompted to restart your computer, you must restart in order to successfully complete installation of the Media Feature Pack.

After you install the Media Feature Pack, there are additional apps that you can install from the Microsoft Store to help you regain additional Windows 10 functionality. These apps include, but are not limited to:

Media codecs for playback of media in apps and in the browser:

Update information

Prerequisites

To install this update, you must have Windows 10 N installed.

Registry information

To apply this update, you don’t have to make any changes to the registry.

Restart requirement

You must restart the computer after you apply this update.

Update replacement information

This update doesn’t replace a previously released update.

More information

Excluded features

Windows 10 N includes the same functionality as other Windows 10 editions, except for Windows Media Player and related technologies. You can restore the functionality of these technologies by installing the Media Feature Pack for N versions of Windows 10. These technologies include, but are not limited to, the following features:

Windows Media Player user experience: Enables Windows Media Player features, such as the ability to play media files and audio CDs, manage media in a library, create a playlist, provide metadata (including album art) for media, create an audio CD, transfer music to a portable music player, and play streaming content from a website.

Windows Media Player ActiveX control: Exposes methods and properties to manipulate multimedia playback from a webpage or an application.

Windows Media Format: Provides support for the Advanced Systems Format (ASF) file container, the Windows Media audio and video codecs, basic network streaming capability, and digital rights management (DRM).

Windows Media DRM: Enables the secure delivery of protected content for playback on a computer, portable device, or network device.

Media sharing and Play To: Enables music, pictures, and videos on a networked computer to be shared with other computers and devices on the same network. Also enables computers to find those kinds of files on the network.

Media Foundation: Provides support for content protection, audio and video quality, and interoperability for DRM.

Windows Portable Devices (WPD) infrastructure: Communicates with attached media and storage devices that include devices that support the Media Transfer Protocol.

MPEG, WMA, AAC, FLAC, ALAC, AMR, and Dolby Digital audio codecs: Enable the playback of digital audio content, such as MP3, WMA, MPEG-2 audio, AAC audio, FLAC and ALAC audio, and AC-3 audio.

VC-1, MPEG-4, and H.264, H.265, and H.263 codecs: Collectively known as «Standards-based codec components.» Enable Windows 10 program such as Windows Media Player to support activities that include the playback and recording of multimedia files that are encoded with standards-based codecs.

Groove Music: A preinstalled app that’s used to play digital music.

Video: A preinstalled app that’s used to play digital video.

Voice Recorder: A preinstalled app that’s used to record sounds.

Skype: A preinstalled app that’s used for messaging and communications.

Effects on other features

Some features aren’t excluded directly from Windows 10 N edition. But they are affected by the media technology exclusions, and they don’t work even with the installation of the Media Feature Pack. These features include the following:

Alarms and clock: Alarm and timer sounds don’t play.

Application Sync: This feature doesn’t work.

Cortana Personal Assistant: Cortana with Voice (speech interaction with Cortana) doesn’t work.

Group Policy for removable disks: This feature is not available in the N edition of Windows 10 Pro.

HomeGroup: Integrated media sharing through streaming features doesn’t work.

OneDrive and Photos: These applications cannot play videos.

PDF Viewing in Edge: This feature doesn’t work.

Sound Recorder: Recordings are limited to WAV format.

Webcam: This feature doesn’t work.

Windows 10 camera devices: Cameras that use the picture transfer protocol (PTP) don’t work.

Windows Hello: This feature doesn’t work.

Windows Mixed Reality: N versions of Windows 10 isn’t compatible with Windows Mixed Reality.

Windows Portable Devices: There is no support for media synchronization, image acquisition, or file browsing.

Windows Store Media Content: Audio and video content that was obtained through the Store cannot be played. Also, the preview of audio or video content in the Store doesn’t work.

Wireless Display: This feature doesn’t work.

Xbox: Some functionality that’s associated with this application, such as Game DVR, doesn’t work.

Media Feature Pack for Windows 10 N (October 2020)

Summary

This update provides support for media features in Windows 10 N. These include media-related technologies (Windows Media Player) and certain preinstalled media apps, such as Groove Music, Movies & TV, Voice Recorder, and Skype. You must install additional software from Microsoft to have this communication functionality and to play or to create audio CDs, media files, and video DVDs, to stream music, or to take and store pictures.

How to get this update

Microsoft Optional Features

The Media Feature Pack for N versions of Windows 10 is available for download as an Optional Feature. To install the Media Feature Pack, navigate to Settings > Apps > Apps and Features > Optional Features > Add a Feature and find the Media Feature Pack in the list of available Optional Features. Note, you will not be prompted to restart your computer, but you must restart in order to successfully complete installation of the Media Feature Pack.

Additional steps
After you have installed the Media Feature Pack, there are additional apps that can be installed from the Store to regain additional Windows 10 functionality. Such apps include (but are not limited to):

Media codecs for playback of media in apps and in the browser:

Update information

Prerequisites

To install this update, you must have Windows 10 N installed.

Registry information

To apply this update, you don’t have to make any changes to the registry.

Restart requirement

You must restart the computer after you apply this update.

Update replacement information

This update doesn’t replace a previously released update.

More information

Excluded features

Windows 10 N includes the same functionality as other Windows 10 editions, except for Windows Media Player and related technologies. Customers can restore the functionality of these technologies by installing the Media Feature Pack for N versions of Windows 10. These technologies include, but are not limited to, the following features:

Windows Media Player user experience: Enables Windows Media Player features, such as the ability to play media files and audio CDs, manage media in a library, create a playlist, provide metadata (including album art) for media, create an audio CD, transfer music to a portable music player, and play streaming content from a website.

Windows Media Player ActiveX control: Exposes methods and properties to manipulate multimedia playback from a webpage or an application.

Windows Media Format: Provides support for the Advanced Systems Format (ASF) file container, the Windows Media audio and video codecs, basic network streaming capability, and digital rights management (DRM).

Windows Media DRM: Enables the secure delivery of protected content for playback on a computer, portable device, or network device.

Media sharing and Play To: Enables music, pictures, and videos on a networked computer to be shared with other computers and devices on the same network. Also enables computers to find those kinds of files on the network.

Media Foundation: Provides support for content protection, audio and video quality, and interoperability for DRM.

Windows Portable Devices (WPD) infrastructure: Communicates with attached media and storage devices that include devices that support the Media Transfer Protocol.

MPEG, WMA, AAC, FLAC, ALAC, AMR, and Dolby Digital audio codecs: Enable the playback of digital audio content, such as MP3, WMA, MPEG-2 audio, AAC audio, FLAC and ALAC audio, and AC-3 audio.

VC-1, MPEG-4, and H.264, H.265, and H.263 codecs: Collectively known as «Standards-based codec components.» Enable Windows 10 program such as Windows Media Player to support activities that include the playback and recording of multimedia files that are encoded with standards-based codecs.

Groove Music: A preinstalled app that’s used to play digital music.

Video: A preinstalled app that’s used to play digital video.

Voice Recorder: A preinstalled app that’s used to record sounds.

Skype: A preinstalled app that’s used for messaging and communications.

Effects on other features

Some features aren’t excluded directly from Windows 10 N edition, but they are affected by the media technology exclusions and will not work even with the installation of the Media Feature Pack. These features include the following:

Alarms and clock: Alarm and timer sounds don’t play.

Application Sync: This feature doesn’t work.

Cortana Personal Assistant: Cortana with Voice (speech interaction with Cortana) doesn’t work.

New Microsoft Edge Browser: Certain video streaming websites may have incomplete functionality when accessed via the New Microsoft Edge Browser.

Group Policy for removable disks: This feature is not available in the N edition of Windows 10 Pro.

HomeGroup: Integrated media sharing through streaming features doesn’t work.

OneDrive and Photos: These applications cannot play videos.

PDF Viewing in Edge: This feature doesn’t work.

Sound Recorder: Recordings are limited to WAV format.

Webcam: This feature doesn’t work.

Windows 10 camera devices: Cameras that use the picture transfer protocol (PTP) don’t work.

Windows Hello: This feature doesn’t work.

Windows Mixed Reality: Windows 10 N is not compatible with Windows Mixed Reality.

Windows Portable Devices: There is no support for media synchronization, image acquisition, or file browsing.

Windows Store Media Content: Audio and video content that was obtained through the Store cannot be played. Also, the preview of audio or video content in the Store doesn’t work.

Wireless Display: This feature doesn’t work.

Xbox: Some functionality that’s associated with this application, such as Game DVR, doesn’t work.

Media Feature Pack for N versions of Windows 10

Media Feature Pack for N versions of Windows 10

Windows 10 N editions include the same functionality as Windows 10, except that these versions of Windows do not include Windows Media Player, and related technologies.

End-user customers can enable the media functionality to work properly by installing the Media Feature Pack for N versions of Windows 10 (KB3145500).

This feature pack can be applied to computers running Windows 10 N editions.

Supported Operating System

• Windows 10
• Windows 10 Home N, Windows 10 Pro N, Windows 10 Education N, Windows 10 Enterprise N, Windows 10 Enterprise N Eval

1. Select the appropriate version of Windows 10 N from the drop down list below. If your version does not appear in the list, please go to KB3145500 to find the appropriate Media Feature Pack for your version of Windows.
2. Do one of the following:
   • To start the installation immediately, click Run.
   • To save the download to your computer for installation at a later time, click Save.
   • To cancel the installation, click Cancel.

Downloads

Select your version of Windows from the dropdown list below. If your version does not appear in the list, please go to KB3145500 to find the appropriate Media Feature Pack for your version of Windows.

How To Install Media Feature Pack In Windows 10 N/KN Version 1909

You need to install Media Feature Pack in Windows 10 N/KN editions to enable all multimedia features. Features like Windows Media Player, Music, Video, Voice Recorder, etc. are not included in the N/KN editions of Windows.

Why are these features not included in Windows 10 N Edition?

This is because of European laws. N stands for No Media. European competition authorities forbid companies to package media products inside of Windows to make sure other media companies can compete with Microsoft on the Windows platform.

The story is similar in the case of Windows 10 KN Edition. Microsoft abides by the Korean laws and does not add the multimedia functionality by default in Windows.

So who needs the Media Feature Pack?

To add the multimedia functionality in Windows 10, you will need to install Media Feature Pack. Microsoft explains in this article about which functionality is not available in the N and KN editions of Windows 10. Here are some of the points:

• New features such as Windows Mixed Reality, Cortana, Windows Hello, and PDF viewing in the new Edge browser that rely on Windows Media files are not included in Windows 10 N.
• Some websites and software, such as Windows Store applications and Microsoft Office, use Windows Media-related files that are not included in Windows 10 N edition. Except for Windows Mixed Reality, users can make these websites and software work correctly by installing the Media Feature Pack for N versions of Windows 10.
• The Media Feature Pack for N versions of Windows 10 is incompatible with Windows Mixed Reality. Users who want to use Windows Mixed Reality must install a non-N version of Windows 10.

In this article, we will explain the steps to install and activate Media Feature Pack for Windows 10 N/KN Version 1909 (also applies for Version 1903).

But first, how do I check if I have N/KN edition of Windows 10?

This is simple. Go to Run –> winver.

It will tell you exactly which version and edition of Windows you are running. Here is a screenshot of mine: Build and Edition of Windows (winver)

Install Media Feature Pack in Windows 10 N/KN Version 1909

Earlier, Microsoft used to provide download links for media feature packs for each new version of Windows 10. But from Version 1903, the MFP has been added to optional features and can be installed directly from the control panel. Let’s go through the steps to add Media Feature Pack:

1. Open Windows Settings and go to Apps.
2. Under Apps & Features, click on Optional features.

Apps Features 1
Click on Add a feature

Add a feature

Find Media Feature Pack from the list.

Clicking on the item will enable the Install button. Press the button to download and install the feature automatically.

Install Media Feature Pack in Windows 10

Please note that you will need to install Windows Media Player separately. You can find and install it using the same list. Install Windows Media Player from optional features in Windows 10

After the installation is complete, you can see Media Feature Pack and Windows Media Player in the list of optional features in the Apps.

After installing Media Feature Pack, you can install media codecs from Microsoft Store to make the most out of your multimedia experience. Here are some interesting codec packs:

VP9 Video Extensions (Play streaming videos over the Internet)

Web Media Extensions (For Edge and Windows 10 to support open-source media formats)

HEIF Image Extensions (Read and write high-efficiency image files)

Uninstall Media Feature Pack from Windows 10

Uninstalling Media Feature Pack from Windows 10 is very similar to the installation. Here are the steps involved:

1. Go to Windows Settings –> Apps.
2. Under Apps & Features, click on Optional features
3. You will see Media Feature Pack in the list of installed optional features
4. Click on the item and the Uninstall option will appear.
5. Click on the Uninstall button to completely remove Media Feature Pack from Windows 10.

Uninstall Windows Media Player from Windows 10 optional features

Please note that you need an active Internet connection to install optional features in Windows 10. And a restart is required after installation of Windows Media Pack to start working correctly.

What are your thoughts about this functionality by Microsoft? Did you prefer to download the Media Feature Pack or are you comfortable with Microsoft adding the tool to its optional features?