‘Screenbox’ Is a Sleek and Capable VLC-Based Video Player for Windows

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.

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