Friday 4 May 2012

Windows 8 Won't Play DVD Videos - a Backwards Step

I just read this article on Gizmodo, about how Windows 8 isn't going to play DVDs natively.

Whilst I can see the sense in this to a degree in terms of cutting costs in licences for Windows, it seems such a backwards step to remove a feature that so many people will just assume exists within the operating system.

In my day job I'm always helping out folks that are not the most technically savvy - they just want things to "work" straight out of the box.

Whilst many people are now much more used to downloading video files, and need players to support various codecs and the like, there is still a large gap of understanding, particularly with the silver surfer generation.

Removing these things that have always just worked is likely to cause confusion to these people.

There are of course, plenty of ways to get a free bit of software to install that will handle this. I can see that my grandparents are all likely to be on the phone to me to help me to get them install it though, as I've suggested for their security that they don't tackle these items alone!

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