DVD player software for FREE on your Windows machine

Firstly, this post is meant for Windows users, however the software mentioned is open-source and runs on OS X and Linux as well. One thing I run into occassionally is someone wondering why they can't watch DVDs on their laptop. I know Windows machines come with Windows Media Player, but that never really has seemed to do a very good job of working with DVDs or movie files. I've used Powerlink's CyberDVD before and it performed well, but if it didn't come installed from the factory you likely won't want to pay for it. There are others too, but typically they're installed with your computer and if you ever reformat or want to upgrade, they'll try to hit you with fees. Instead, let me introduce you to VLC Media Player.

VLC is an open-source option, with versions for Windows, OS X, and Linux. Being open-source, it is also free for you to download and use. In my testing I've found it to work well with actual DVDs that were having problems playing in Windows Media Player. There is an entire list of other features as well, but I've really only used it to solve the problems I've seen with playing DVDs. So far so good, and since it's free it's really hard to beat it. If you're running into issues with media playback on your machine, give it a try and let me know about your experience. Good luck!