Third-party testing has revealed that Microsoft’s modern Windows 11 Media Player idles at nearly 377 MB of RAM—over triple the 103 MB consumed by the legacy Windows Media Player under identical conditions. The figures, which emerged from community benchmarking on a Windows 11 24H2 system, reignite concerns about the app’s resource appetite and its missing codec support, including AC-3 and a paywalled HEVC extension.

In practical terms, 377 MB might not break a 32 GB workstation, but for users on modest hardware, that extra memory footprint is a noticeable tax. It becomes especially stinging when the older Media Player still ships inside Windows and does a comparable job with a far lighter touch. This gap exposes a fundamental tension in Microsoft’s modern app strategy: glossy UWP-based replacements often consume more resources than the Win32 tools they seek to succeed.

The RAM Surprise Nobody Asked For

Quiet background memory consumption matters far more than most users realize. Every megabyte eaten by a media player is a megabyte not available for background services, browser tabs, or that one bloated Electron app everyone uses. The test environment, running a clean Windows 11 Pro 24H2 installation with 16 GB of RAM, showed the new Media Player stabilizing at around 377 MB after launch—before a single track was loaded. Switch over to the classic Windows Media Player (available through Optional Features), and the figure plummeted to 103 MB.

That 274 MB delta might seem trivial in isolation, but it represents a 266 percent increase. Multiply it across a fleet of corporate laptops or shared family PCs, and the cumulative effect on system responsiveness isn’t just theoretical. Background memory pressure leads to more disk paging, slower app switching, and, on devices with eMMC storage, a perceptible performance hit.

Where does the extra memory go? The new Media Player is built on the Windows App SDK and is heavily componentized, with separate processes for rendering, media pipeline, and UI. It leans on XAML for its interface, which loads runtime frameworks that the compact Win32 Media Player never needed. Additionally, the modern player pre-caches album art and integrates with OneDrive and the cloud, services that run even when idle. None of that justifies a 3.6x bloat, but it explains why stripping down a universal app to the metal is so difficult.

Codec Frustrations: AC-3 Support Vanishes

RAM usage is only half the story. The Windows 11 Media Player continues to ship without native support for Dolby Digital (AC-3) audio. For anyone who ripped a DVD collection or acquired older MKV/AVI files, AC-3 was the go-to surround sound format. Windows Media Player handled it without fuss for two decades. The modern app simply refuses to decode the stream, leaving users with silent video files unless they install a third-party codec pack—something Microsoft has increasingly discouraged.

The omission isn’t a bug. AC-3 is a licensed codec, and Microsoft apparently decided not to bear the per-unit royalty cost in a post-Optical-disc world. The decision aligns with the removal of Windows Media Center and the slow deprecation of DVD playback across the ecosystem. Yet the practical fallout is real: community forums routinely fill with posts from confused users whose perfectly good video files no longer produce sound when double-clicked in File Explorer.

You can restore AC-3 playback by installing a codec pack like K-Lite or by using a media player that bundles its own decoders, such as VLC. Microsoft’s official stance is that modern content uses AAC or other royalty-free codecs, and that customers needing legacy codecs should look to the Microsoft Store or third-party solutions. That stance is defensible on paper, but it ignores the reality that millions of legacy files still populate people’s libraries. It also puts the burden of support squarely on the user, who now must troubleshoot why audio randomly broke after upgrading to Windows 11.

The HEVC Extension: A $0.99 Wallet Tap

The third pillar of criticism is the handling of HEVC (H.265) video. HEVC is essential for 4K content and is widely used by smartphones and action cameras. Microsoft includes a HEVC decoder in Windows, but only for OEMs who pay the license fee. For the rest of us, the codec is gated behind a $0.99 purchase in the Microsoft Store: the “HEVC Video Extensions” package. Without it, the Media Player either cannot open HEVC files at all or shows a cryptic error that sends novices scrambling for search engines.

That $0.99 is small, but the principle is large. Most users expect a built-in media player to play the video files their iPhones and GoPros spit out without a credit card detour. They don’t know—and shouldn’t have to know—that HEVC licensing is a thicket. Rival operating systems generally include HEVC decoding at the OS level, absorbing the cost into the platform. Microsoft’s decision to pass the buck to the user feels like a relic of the early Windows 10 Store era, when even DVD playback cost extra.

There is a workaround: a second, free “HEVC Video Extensions from Device Manufacturer” package often appears in the Store, but it’s rarely surfaced automatically and requires manual link hunting. This inconsistency leaves users rightfully annoyed, especially when they encounter the problem right out of the box.

The Bigger Picture: Why Does This Matter?

On a technical level, Windows 11’s Media Player is a competent, attractive app that integrates well with the OS. It handles Groove Music playlists, syncs with cloud libraries, and offers a clean minimal interface. The problem is that for a large swath of customers, the basics still matter more than the bells and whistles. They want fast local playback, low resource drain, and broad format support without shopping for extensions.

The RAM and codec issues reflect a design philosophy that values ecosystem integration over raw efficiency. In the server room, that trade-off might be acceptable. On a consumer laptop with 8 GB of RAM, it’s harder to swallow. And when the older, less fancy tool does the primary job better, users will naturally gravitate back to it—or abandon both for a third-party option like VLC or MPC-HC.

Microsoft’s fragmented codec strategy also undercuts the “it just works” promise that Windows once delivered. When Apple’s QuickTime Player on macOS plays almost anything without drama, and VLC has been a one-click solution for decades, Windows 11’s media story feels disjointed. It forces a conversation about licensing onto the end user, which is the antithesis of good UX.

Community Reactions and Workarounds

The Windows enthusiast community has been vocal. On forums and social media, the 377 MB figure has become a rallying point for frustrations that have simmered since the new app launched. Many experienced users have already disabled the modern Media Player via Group Policy or PowerShell and restored the classic WMP as the default. Others have gone completely off-Microsoft, adopting VLC, MPC-BE, or even the newly revived Winamp.

For those willing to tweak, the classic Windows Media Player is still just a few clicks away: go to Settings > Apps > Optional Features > Add a feature, then select “Windows Media Player.” It will appear in the Start Menu, ready to reclaim its throne. It won’t have the modern player’s visual flair, but it will play AC-3, use far less memory, and won’t bug you about the HEVC extension—provided your file’s container and codecs are otherwise supported.

VLC remains the most compelling alternative, handling virtually every codec out of the box, including AC-3 and HEVC, while staying under 100 MB of RAM during playback. That comparison makes the 377 MB figure even harder to justify, because the community’s response to “use something else” is both simple and effective.

What Could Microsoft Do?

The company hasn’t publicly addressed the new benchmarks, but the path to redemption isn’t mysterious. First, it could optimize the Media Player’s idle footprint by deferring non-essential services until they’re actually needed. The cloud and discovery features should not spin up every container at launch; they should be on-demand. Second, it could negotiate a blanket AC-3 license for Windows 11, as it did for earlier versions, or at least partner with Dolby to offer a free plugin. Third, it should make the free HEVC extension easier to find, perhaps pre-installing it for all users and absorbing the token licensing cost.

None of these changes require a ground-up rewrite. They are incremental improvements that would directly address the community’s top three pain points. Windows Central, Thurrott, and other outlets have previously urged Microsoft to consolidate its media strategy; this latest round of criticism might finally generate some movement.

The Silent Threat of Looming Deadlines

Windows 11 24H2 is now rolling out broadly, and the company’s focus appears to be on Copilot+ PCs and AI features rather than on refining legacy media playback. The risk is that the modern Media Player calcifies in its current state, permanently carrying the stigma of being a resource hog that can’t handle mainstream codecs. Meanwhile, the classic WMP continues to work well but is clearly in maintenance mode, receiving only critical security fixes.

If Microsoft truly views the classic player as deprecated, it needs to ensure the replacement is at least functionally equivalent for the most common scenarios. That hasn’t happened yet, and each new release that leaves these issues unresolved erodes confidence in the new app’s future.

Bottom Line

For now, Windows 11 users face an uncomfortable choice: accept a media player that devours system memory and asks for spare change to decode your family videos, or retreat to a 20-year-old classic that works silently in the background. The numbers don’t lie: 377 MB versus 103 MB, with missing codecs on top, makes the modern Media Player difficult to recommend for anyone who values performance and plug-and-play simplicity.

The silver lining is that the workaround is free and fast—restore Windows Media Player and forget the drama. But that’s a lose-lose for Microsoft, which invested heavily in the new experience only to see power users and novices alike vote with their clicks. Whether the company will adjust course remains an open question, but until it does, the legacy player’s light footprint and broader codec support will keep it the unsung hero of audio and video playback on Windows 11.