Source
r/firefox•
Photoloss

[Win10 N] Media without bloatware?

Help

So I'm on Win10 N and Twitch stopped working yesterday. Since it was running the Flash interface I presume they shut that down on their end. Now according to the incredibly helpful (/s) popup bar the official "solution" is to install the Media Feature Pack from Microsoft. Only I neither want nor need all the other components, starting with Windows Media Player itself (got VLC for that, works just fine without MFP). Ironically enough peddling unsolicited bloatware was one of the main reasons we ragged on Adobe's Flash downloads years ago yet now this official-looking Firefox prompt asks me to do the same?

So does anyone know an actual solution which does not involve installing the full Media Feature Pack? Hopefully I simply missed an about:config setting to allow third-party media support such as K-Lite but older threads suggest otherwise. I presume it would be possible to download the MFP and either unpack the installer or install in a VM and copy over the libraries and registry entries Firefox actually requires but don't have the know-how to do that without at least some pointers on finding the correct registry keys.

Any pointers on whether or not all unwanted components of the MFP can be deinstalled individually are also appreciated as well as any known issues with the installation resetting file associations (e.g. switching media files from VLC to WMP, definitely don't want that!)

Thanks in advance!

Posted Oct 18, 2019, 6:03 PM UTC

08
throwaway1111139991e:nightly: on 🐧•

Sounds more like a r/Windows10 question to me.

3
PhotolossOP•

Well I asked on r/windows a while ago for the MFP side and didn't get any replies, not even a dismissive "suck it up".

My issue (currently) is specific to Firefox because VLC Player "just works" without installing any extra stuff and the K-Lite Codec Pack seems to work just fine for thumbnails which were the only other obvious deficiency in everyday use.

-1
nevernotmaybe•

Did you go through the extra components listed and try installing specific related parts, such as the web/vp9 stuff?

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4475817/media-feature-pack-for-windows-10-n-may-2019

If this is an issue on Windows side, even if it only affects Firefox it's still a Windows issue. It's hard to tell though as you didn't give any information on what the problem is, other than not working which could be anything. Twitch hasn't needed Flash for some time.

1
PhotolossOP•

The first step according to your link still is to install the MFP including whatever bloatware and other junk they decided to bundle in it, which is precisely what I want to avoid. While this issue is clearly caused by Microsoft being a douche and not offering individual installers I still need to know which components Firefox actually needs in order to look for a workaround. For a concise description of the issue:

Firefox is unable to play modern media streams (HTML5 etc.) on Windows 10 N and demands the installation of unnecessary apps as a workaround.

0
nevernotmaybe•

It doesn't say anything on the individual store pages for the other apps that you need the media feature pack. Does it not let you if you try? I'm not on Windows 10 anymore otherwise I would test it myself.

Maybe someone else will know specific details about what is happening to cause this.

1
PhotolossOP•

It doesn't say anything on the individual store pages for the other apps that you need the media feature pack.

I don't really understand what you mean. I am not trying to run any "apps" other than Firefox. The problem is that according to all available information the Media Feature Pack includes all sorts of "media apps" (Microsoft's own words on the "Add a feature" install page) which I do not want on my machine. I only want the codecs and other supporting libraries necessary for Firefox to play video streams.

1
nevernotmaybe•

I mean the links on the page in my first comment (like this one - https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/p/vp9-video-extensions/9n4d0msmp0pt?activetab=pivot:overviewtab) that Microsoft use the app store they have to distribute.

It doesn't say you need anything else installed on the page for these Windows codecs, I though it was at least worth checking to see.

1
VictoryNapping•

The Media Feature Pack includes the Media Foundation subsystem that powers most audio/video tasks on Windows, in addition to the codecs and the old Windows Media player app. Major apps generally have to integrate with the OS' native media API's to handle modern formats and hardware acceleration, I wouldn't expect many modern apps to try to implement their media frameworks these days.

1