How to play DVDs in Windows 8 for FREE

Microsoft has decided to remove native DVD playing in Windows 8. In order to play DVDs you now need third party program. Most of the DVD playing programs cost money, but luckily there are some free ones. One of my favorite media players is VLC media player. VLC can play DVDs and basically any video or music file you can find. This includes AVI files, MP4 files, MKV files, etc. Another option is to install Windows Media Center, a program that used to be included in Windows 7 and Windows Vista

If you would like to install Windows Media Center, check out this blog post. 

You can download VLC from VideoLan's website. Click the big Download VLC button and to download the installer. When installing use the default options. This registers VLC as a DVD player with Windows. 




If the DVD is already inserted, you can open VLC from the start screen to play your DVD. Click Media and then Open Disc. Then press the Play button to play your DVD.