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Comment by inversionOf | Hacker News Reader

Note that the upgrade will remove your Windows built-in DVD player.

Windows 8.1 had no built in DVD player. Nor did Windows 7 Starter or Basic. Further, I suspect it's a feature that the vast majority of people have never used, exactly why Microsoft decided that they wouldn't subsidize the licensing for no reason. This is a very 2002 discussion.

Not that your point isn't valid -- at least for those users who ever actually tried playing a video DVD, and who had a supporting version of Windows -- it's just pretty odd that such a comment sits at the very top of an enormous technology event.

The Tesla doesn't come with a holder for my buggy whip.

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> it's just pretty odd that such a comment sits at the very top of an enormous technology event.

Tech people like you and me love to nitpick. It's quite "logical", measurable, and it generalizes complex issues into nicely formatted bullet points.

As a user I have issues with Windows removing a built-in DVD player. I'm one of those dinosaurs who still watches his DVDs from his laptop. It was news to me and I appreciate that it was at the top.

But that's just the thing. They didn't remove it. I have literally never been able to play DVDs in Windows without installing third party codecs or programs.

I've never had an issue playing on Windows 7 Media Player out of the box (I skipped 8 and 8.1 chaos).

All the DVDs I've bought which were marked as protected I've played on more legally bought Windows 7 and 8 computers without the 3rd party programs.

"Windows 8 with Media Center" did contain DVD playing capability.

The Media Center addition was given to early adopters of Windows 8 for free.

> it's just pretty odd that such a comment sits at the very top of an enormous technology event.

What you call "an enormous technology event" I call a disaster, showing perfect "we don't care for the current users" attitude, even after the public demonstrated what it thinks about the "improvements" in Windows 8. The commenters here rightly point that the returned Start menu is even worse than it was during the tech preview. And I have actually paid for my copies of Ultimate and Pro with Media Center versions and I actually need the features I note are now quietly removed. It's your right that you don't need them, but I do need them and the people who consider installing 10 should know about it too.

Okay, so I hope others see your real motives.

Don't upgrade. You paid $0 for Windows 10, had absolutely no expectations about it when you apparently bought Windows 7, and now it's a "disaster" because an unused feature was openly and clearly removed. Give me a break.

This sort of "take a shit on everything" attitude is one of the worst facets of HN, and your comments in particular exemplify them. Don't upgrade. Move on.

Or upgrade and download VLC.

VLC, in my experience, plays 90%+ of DVDs perfectly (actually better, since now everything is skippable and you get significantly more rendering options than any other player).

The few DVDs which malfunction are typically published by Disney in the last few years and contain DRM specifically designed to break unlicensed players. VLC have been very active in fixing these issues, and have in many cases.

But if people plan on using VLC just be aware that the rare DVD won't work well or at all. Still the best DVD playing software I've used, including paid software.

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