How to play WebM files on a Windows PC without third party software

WebM is a royalty-free media file format designed for the web. Today, most web browsers, including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, etc., support WebM media files. This means you can play WebM media files in your web browser without installing any plugin or extension. In this article, we will talk about how to play WebM files on a Windows PC without third-party software. However, if you want to play WebM files in a media player, you can also do that, a majority of media players support WebM media file format. We have also mentioned some free media players that support WebM files in this article.

How to play WebM files on Windows PC without any third-party software

As explained above, WebM media file format is supported by a majority of web browsers, you can play a WebM file in your web browser in the following two ways:

1. By selecting the web browser from right-click context menu
2. By opening the WebM file directly in your web browser

Let’s see both of these methods here.

1] Play WebM files by selecting your web browser from right-click context menu

By using this method, you can select any web browser from File Explorer to play WebM files. The following steps will guide you on this:

1. Open File Explorer and go to the location where you have saved the WebM file.
2. Right-click on the WebM file and select Open with. Now, select the web browser in which you want to play the WebM file. You can enable file extensions in File Explorer so that you could quickly identify the WebM files among the other media files.
3. If you do not find your web browser after selecting the “Open with” option in the context menu, click Choose another app. Now, click More apps to expand the list of apps.
4. If your web browser is still not there, click Look for another app on this PC.
5. Now, go to the location where you have installed your web browser, select it, and click Open. To view the installation location of your web browser, right-click on your browser icon on the Desktop and select Open file location.

After that, Windows will open the WebM file in your web browser.

If you want, you can also set the selected web browser as default to open WebM files by clicking on the Always use this app to open .webm files. After setting your web browser as a default software to open WebM files, Windows will automatically open the WebM files in that web browser.

2] Play WebM files by opening them directly in your web browser

This is a simple method to play WebM files in your web browser. Follow the below instructions:

1. Open your web browser. If you have already opened it, open a new tab in it by pressing Ctrl + T keys.
2. Press Ctrl + O keys to open a file.
3. Now, select the WebM file and click Open.

After that, your web browser will play the selected WebM file.

Free software to play WebM files

If you are wondering which program can play WebM files, here, we will see some free software that you can install to play WebM files.

1. Windows Media Player
2. VLC Media Player
3. 5K Player
4. Kodi
5. SMPlayer

Let’s take a look at these media players one by one.

1] Windows Media Player

Windows Media Player is developed by Microsoft Corporation. All Windows computers come with the pre-installed Windows Media Player. To launch Windows Media Player, click on the Start and type Windows Media Player, then select the app from the Search Results. If you do not find the app in Search Results, you have to install it from Windows Optional Features.

To play WebM files in Windows Media Player, the player should have the necessary audio and video codecs. If you have Windows Media Player 12, you have to install WebM Media Foundation Components on your system. The users with earlier versions of Windows Media Player have to install WebM DirectShow Filters and Vorbis Audio Filters to play WebM files. You can download these components and filters from the WebM official website webmproject.org.

I tried to download the WebM Media Foundation Components from the official website and found that the link was broken. But when I opened the WebM files on Windows Media Player 12, it played them without installing WebM Media Foundation Components.

How do I open a WebM file in Windows Media Player?

To open or play a WebM file in Windows Media Player, right-click on it and select Windows Media Player. Alternatively, launch Windows Media Player and then press Ctrl + O keys, and then select the WebM video file to play it.

2] VLC Media Player

VLC Media Player is a free and open-source cross-platform media player for Windows that supports a large number of audio and video file formats including WebM. To play a WebM video file in VLC Media Player, follow the steps below:

1. Launch the VLC Media Player.
2. Go to “Media > Open File.”
3. Select the WebM video file from your computer and then click Open.

Read: How do I fix Audio Delay in VLC Media Player.

3] 5KPlayer

5KPlayer is among the power video players that can play high-definition videos, including 5K, 4K, 360-degree videos, etc. Like VLC Media Player, 5KPlayer also supports a large number of video and audio formats. It is free to download and use. It comes with a built-in Video Downloader that lets you download videos from Dailymotion, YouTube, and more.

Playing the WebM videos in 5KPlayer is simple. Right-click on your WebM file and select Open with. After that, select 5KPlayer to play the WebM file.

4] Kodi

Kodi is a free and open-source media player that supports WebM and other media formats. Apart from playing video files, Kodi offers a lot of amazing features to the users. You can create different playlists for your videos, music, movies, and more. Kodi also has free add-ons that you can install to watch TV Shows and play games.

To play WebM files in Kodi, you have to add the folder containing your videos. The steps are as follows:

1. Select Videos from the left pane.
2. Select Files.
3. Click on the Add videos button.
4. Now, click Browse and select the folder from your computer that contains your media files.

It also displays the information of the video files, like the size of the file, duration, quality, codecs, etc.

To download Kodi, you have to visit its official website, Kodi.tv.

5] SMPlayer

SMPlayer is another free media player that comes with WebM file format support. It is available in more than 30 languages. The advanced features of SMPlayer include audio and video filters, changing the playback speed, etc. You can also apply different themes and skins to the player to change its look. To play a WebM file in SMPlayer, go to “Open > File” or press Ctrl + F keys and then select your video file.

SMPlayer also comes with YouTube video support that lets you play YouTube videos in the SMPlayer. For this, follow the steps below:

1. Copy the URL of the YouTube video.
2. Open SMPlayer.
3. Go to “Open > URL” or simply press Ctrl + U keys.
4. Now, paste the copied URL and click OK. After that, you will receive a prompt to download the optional plugin. Click Yes.

After the installation of the optional plugin, you will be able to play YouTube videos in SMPlayer. You can download SMPlayer from its official website, smplayer.info.

That’s it.

Read next: Best Free Media Players for Windows PC.