Download the HEVC codec free of charge to natively play videos using this high-efficiency encoding on your Windows PC.
You may have already tried to open a video file using the HEVC (H.265) compression standard using your PC’s native player in Windows 10 or Windows 11 without success. this failure is due to the fact that to play this type of video files, the player built into Windows requires the installation of the dedicated codec.
While this HEVC video extension (used for 4K videos) is downloadable from the Microsoft Store, unfortunately it is not free. Downloading the HEVC extension is officially charged at 0.99 euros. If this sum is certainly modest, the fact of having to pay to be able to play a video on an operating system like Windows 11 is an aberration.
The first instinct that many users will probably have will then be to download a third-party media player that natively supports this type of encoding. This is the case, for example, of the excellent VLC, an open source and completely free multimedia player.
However, if you absolutely insist on playing videos using the HEVC codec with the native Windows player, you can do so without spending a penny. There is indeed a very simple hack to download this codec from the Microsoft Store without spending a penny.
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To do this, open your favorite web browser, copy and paste the following link and press the Enter key on the keyboard.
ms-windows-store://pdp/?ProductId=9n4wgh0z6vhq
In the dialog that appears, click the Open Microsoft Store button.
The Microsoft Store should then open to the dedicated download page for the HEVC video extension for your computer and, surprise, offer you a button allowing you to install it for free.
Once installed, you should be able to play videos using this codec with the native Windows player.