For almost two decades, VLC Media Player has been one of the first apps I install on a new computer. It is the reliable, orange-coned workhorse that will play anything I throw at it, from corrupted AVI files to modern MKVs. However, I’ve always had one persistent complaint: VLC’s interface looks like it was designed in 2002—I can imagine you muttering, because, well, it largely was. Fair enough. While it is functionally perfect, its interface is a relic of cluttered menus, gray toolbars, and a utilitarian design that sticks out like a sore thumb on Windows 11.

For years, I’ve waited for the mythical "VLC 4.0" redesign, but I recently stopped waiting. I found Screenbox. It is a free, open-source media player that effectively answers the question, "What if VLC looked like a modern Windows app?"

Screenbox

OS Windows 10 & 11

Price model Free (open-source)

Play any video or audio format smoothly with Screenbox Media Player. It offers a clean interface, fast playback, and powerful controls for all your media on the go.

Screenbox brings VLC’s power into a modern Windows design

It’s the legendary orange cone’s brain inside a much sharper suit

The first thing you notice about Screenbox is how the interface follows Microsoft’s Fluent Design language, with smooth animations, intuitive controls, and a clean layout that doesn’t overwhelm you with buttons and menus. Unlike VLC’s cluttered toolbar and menu bar, Screenbox takes a minimalist approach, showing controls only when needed and fading them away when they’re not.

That clean approach carries over to the left sidebar, where you’ll find your media library, recently played files, and network sources. When you click into the Music or Videos tabs, you’ll find that Screenbox automatically organizes your content with album art, metadata, and sorting options that actually make browsing enjoyable. The default library locations are set to your Windows Music and Videos folders, but you can easily add additional directories through the settings menu.

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Playback is handled with impressive polish. The controls sit at the bottom of the screen with a clean progress bar, standard playback buttons, and volume control. The player starts videos instantly with proper aspect-ratio detection, and right-clicking opens a context menu with all the options you’d expect, such as aspect-ratio adjustments (16:9, 4:3, 21:9, and custom ratios), playback speed controls, subtitle settings, the works. There’s even support for capturing still images from video, perfect for capturing memorable scenes or creating reference screenshots.

It also supports gestures, which is a treat if you’re watching on a laptop trackpad or a Surface device. You can swipe up or down on the screen to adjust the volume, or swipe left or right to seek through the video. And if you prefer the keyboard, Screenbox borrows from YouTube’s intuitive shortcut layout. F toggles full screen, J and L skip 10 seconds backward or forward, K and the space bar handle play/pause, and M mutes audio. You can tweak all of these in the settings, but the defaults are so intuitive that you likely won’t need to.

The feature set goes beyond basic playback needs

More than just a pretty face with a play button

Screenbox handles multitasking far better than most of its competitors, largely thanks to its Picture-in-Picture mode. You can float a resizable video window above your other apps, which is invaluable when you’re following a tutorial or working across multiple tasks. The implementation is smooth and doesn’t require fiddling with settings. All you need to do is activate it from the playback controls or press Ctrl+M.

The app supports a wide range of file formats and codecs, playing essentially any media you throw at it without add-ons, courtesy of its LibVLC foundation. In testing, I threw my usual "torture test" folder at it, comprising h.265 HEVC files, older FLV clips, MKVs with multiple subtitle tracks, and high-bitrate 4K HDR footage. Screenbox played every single one without asking me to download a codec pack. There’s also support for hardware acceleration and advanced upscaling methods, such as bilinear, point, or super-resolution scaling, which ensure smooth playback even with high-resolution content.

The Network tab hides another welcome perk: Chromecast support. Instead of fumbling with HDMI cables or complicated casting setups, you can beam your local videos straight to any compatible device. Screenbox also remembers exactly where you left off, so when you reopen a file, it politely asks whether you want to resume from your last timestamp. That’s a cool VLC feature I love here.

If you’re more into audio, Screenbox holds its own there, too. You can increase volume beyond 100% for quiet tracks (up to 200%), and browse your library by songs, albums, or artists. The music library tools aren’t as deep as what you’d find in a dedicated audio player. Still, they’re more than sufficient for casual listening and underscore the app’s ambition to be a true all-in-one media hub.

That said, there are areas where VLC still has the edge. Screenbox doesn’t include an audio equalizer, video converter, or the ability to stream from URLs. Its settings menu is intentionally light, focusing on the essentials rather than the encyclopedic level of customization VLC offers. If you rely on those heavy-duty tools, VLC is still your best bet.

Consider making Screenbox your default Windows player

If you’ve been sticking with VLC out of habit, or settling for the built-in Windows Media Player because it’s "good enough," Screenbox is absolutely worth a look. It’s still a young app, so you may bump into the occasional quirk or a feature that feels halfway there, but frankly, that’s part of the charm of something that’s actively growing. And even in its current state, Screenbox nails the fundamentals. In many ways, it feels like the version of VLC we might have gotten if VideoLAN had pursued modern interface design with the same intensity it brought to codec compatibility.