Looking for a Windows video player that looks nice, is easy to use, and supports every media file you can imagine? Screenbox is a free and open source application that fits perfectly in Windows 11. It’s the media player Microsoft should have made for its own operating system.
We’ve talked about IINA , a sleek Mac alternative to VLC. Screenbox is the Windows version of that. It goes without saying that VLC is a powerful video player—if you like it, you should absolutely keep using it. But there are downsides: VLC’s various toggles can feel cluttered and overwhelming and the mostly gray application doesn’t exactly blend in on a modern Windows desktop. Screenbox is built using LibVLCSharp, meaning it supports every media format VLC does and offers the same performance. The big difference is the user interface.
And what a difference it is. Open a video with this application and you’ll see a beautiful player with only buttons that are useful. And there are some nice features included too. The player supports YouTube’s hidden keyboard shortcuts , meaning if you’re learned those, you’ll be able to use them in your desktop video player. There’s also picture-in-picture support, allowing you to play a video in the background while you’re working on something else.
The application also offers a media library feature, if you want it. By default, your video and music folders are included—you can add more folders in the settings. I find this particularly nice for browsing music. You can explore by track, album, or artist.
Credit: Justin Pot
But most people, I suspect, are going to use this just to open the occasional file, not manage a library. I like that it works for both use cases, though. Check it out if you haven’t found the perfect Windows media player yet—it might work for you.
