Playing DVD’s in Windows Vista Home Basic

Microsoft has outdone itself in trying to take control away from you. I had to buy a new PC when mine died and the new one came with a copy of Microsoft Vista Home Basic. What was Microsoft thinking when they released this?

Just now I went to play a DVD that I had been waiting for. The CD is on an obscure topic and made by an individual who is an expert on the topic. Only one problem – the DVD will not play on my computer. At first I thought it was because the home made DVD might be faulty. Turns out that Windows Vista Home Basic will not play a DVD inside Windows Media Player. Seriously.

The “help” at Microsoft’s website says when Vista ships you will be able to purchase the codec to make DVD’s play on this crippled and lame version of Windows. Okay I added the crippled and lame part. Stay with me and I will tell you how to make the DVD play on your copy of Vista Home Basic – for free. Something Microsoft couldn’t be bothered with in their attempt to nickle and dime you to death.

Ridiculous moves like this make you really wonder what Microsoft was thinking when they released the operating system. Want to play a DVD? Pay more money.

Okay enough of my ranting. To play a DVD on your copy Windows Vista Home Basic all you need to do is download a copy of the VideoLAN Media player, VLC for short. You can find that download here:

http://www.videolan.org/

Here is the good news. VLC is cross platform. You can run it on Windows, Macintosh, Linux, BeOS, FreeBSD, and OpenBSD.

Once I installed VLC I was happily watching the DVD I paid good money for, on the hardware I paid good money for, despite the fact that Microsoft wanted to dictate to me how and when I could enjoy my legally obtained media. Oops there I go again starting to rant.