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If you’re looking for an alternative to Windows Media Player, here’s our roundup of the best music and video players out there VLC Media Player

Vlc (videolan.org) will handle pretty much any media file you can throw at it. Its default interface will be familiar if you’ve ever used Windows Media Player, but you can give it a different look by downloading free ‘skins’ from VideoLAN’s website. Using VLC is easy as pie and it includes some nice little extras like colourful patterns that move in time with your music, and subtitles for TV shows and films. It even supports gestures for quick navigation, and the website offers a range of user-created add-ons. VLC was created by a nonprofit organisation with the help of volunteers, so you might like to make a small cash donation to support future updates if it becomes your main media player.

GOM (gomlab.com) looks fantastic, with only a discreet text ad at the bottom and a couple of toolbars to avoid during installation. The first time it runs, it asks you to choose a playback option (normal, high-quality and TV output) to ensure it works well with your media setup, which is a thoughtful touch. Have a poke around the menus and you’ll find lots of interesting bonus features, including the ability to cut the vocals out of songs to create your own karaoke tracks. In fact, the sheer wealth of options could be a little overwhelming for newcomers, but it’s well worth taking the time to explore them all.

If you’ve got a stack of DVDs sitting beside your PC, take a look at SMPlayer (smplayer.sourceforge.net). We particularly like its built-in YouTube support, which lets you search for and stream high-res videos straight to your desktop. You can also download subtitles from the Opensubtitles. org database, which is a feature we’d like to see in all players. SMPlayer remembers the settings for your files, so if you close a video, you can re-open it and pick up where you left off. There are also some nifty features for audio playback, including the ability to turn your favourite songs into karaoke tracks by stripping out the vocals, as in GOM. When installing SMPlayer, select ‘Custom’ if you don’t want the Amazon browser bar or Outfox.tv.

Zoom Player (inmatrix.com) has a stylish modular layout that lets you mix and match menus to your heart’s content. It’s beautifully designed too, with a range of colour schemes. Zoom works with all versions of Windows, and can detect and install missing components that could stop your videos playing properly. It organises your files into neat categories, and will fine-tune the sound and picture to suit your hardware. If that sounds a bit complicated, there are video tutorials on the developer’s YouTube channel to help you find your feet.

KMPlayer (kmplayer.com) stands out thanks to its brilliant support forums, where you can chat with other users, learn about updates and report any bugs. Many languages are catered for, including Chinese, Polish and Farsi. Again, it’s important to take care during the installation if you don’t want to add the Ask toolbar to your browser or join the Paltalk Network (clicking ‘Decline’ won’t stop the player installing). The player is slick and professional-looking, but there’s lots of advertising, with extra pop-up ads appearing at the bottom periodically. If you can overlook these, it’s a feature-packed program that can handle a huge variety of media files, and can even connect to your social media accounts.

When you fire up EDM (easy-data.no), you could be forgiven for thinking you’d travelled back to the mid-1990s. It’s a competent player, but it’s no looker. To jazz it up, you can take your pick from a range of wallpapers (though the default stars are the most tasteful), or try a full-screen psychedelic effect. Another quirk is that the ‘Get artist information’ link takes you to the band’s Wikipedia page rather than scouring the web for track titles, as you might expect. It’s an odd one, no question. But if you have a taste for retro software, it might be just the ticket.

Realplayer (real.com) has been around for a long time even longer than Winamp.Its available for just about every operating system there is (both desktop and mobile), and is packed with features. You can listen to internet radio, sync music with your phone, download videos from the web and share them via social media, and lots more. The player scans your PC for media, which eliminates the need to load everything manually. Unfortunately it also attempts to install browser toolbars and a Norton trial, so read the text carefully before you click anything. RealPlayer looks very smart. Some options, such as ‘Clean up media library’, are actually links to the paid-for version of the player, but if you’re enjoying the free edition it might be worth considering the upgrade.

JetAudio (jetaudio.com) is a hefty download, so if your internet connection is a bit poky, you might want to consider one of the more lightweight options such as VLC or MPC Home Cinema. JetAudio is also a bit sneaky although we were careful during the installation process, we still ended up with two unwanted programs installed on our PC in addition to the media player. They’re easy to remove, but it’s hassle we would rather avoid. Once you’re past that, this is a great little media player that would make a fine addition to your desktop. As its name suggests, it’s designed chiefly for music rather than video. We like the modular design, which lets you choose which controls and playlists you’d like to display, and arrange them however you like. You can also rip music from your CD collection and convert file formats, which is very handy.

Sometimes you don’t want to mess around with fancy interfaces you just want to relax with your favourite music or grab some popcorn and enjoy a film. That’s where Media Player Classic Home Cinema  (mpc-hc.org) comes in. The player downloads and installs in moments, making it ideal if your internet connection is a bit on the slow side. Its interface is pared down to the bare minimum, but it can still fulfil all your media-playing needs. Best of all, its system requirements are very modest. It will even work on a 10-year-old PC running Windows XP.

We’re very impressed with foobar2000 (foobar2000.org) a modest player that’s frugal with your PC’s resources, making it great for older PCs. It doesn’t look especially glamorous, but everything is arranged in a neat and sensible way. Your library is arranged down the left-hand side, much as it is in Windows Media Player, and your current playlist is in the centre. A little equaliser at the bottom is the only nod towards embellishment. When downloading foobar2000, ignore any large green buttons on the website labelled ‘Download now’ – these are cunningly disguised ads. Instead, select the ‘Download’ tab from the menu at the top of the homepage, then grab the latest stable version (the player is updated regularly). The only drawback is that foobar2000 doesn’t support video, so you’ll have to try one of the other players here if you’re more of a film buff than an audiophile.