MCI-Browser

There are many fancy media players out there; some of them come with beautiful high tech interfaces and, in case they are designed for audio first and foremost, they offer some very useful playlist organizing features.

But if you want to go back to a simpler time, when we didn't have fancy UIs and used Windows 95, then you could use MCI-Browser.

As its name suggests, MCI-Browser is firstly a file explorer that can play most audio files and even some video files; this means that you play the files exactly from the folder they’re in, without creating any virtual playlists. From the app’s interface, you can move files and create new folders. Also, be careful not to “remove a song” as you would from a normal media player playlist because that will send the file directly to the Recycle Bin.

Now, one could argue that the interface has a “retro” or “vintage” aesthetic, but the truth is that MCI-Browser just looks old. Even running the app on a Windows 10 desktop seems like a serious anachronism.

Once you get past its outdated look, you’ll notice that MCI-Browser has more than the basic buttons. You get four volume faders: Local, Master, Wave and Midi, which can give you better control over your audio experience.

In the bottom-left corner of the window, you have a horizontal fader. With this, you can modify the track’s speed, basically acting like a pitch fader – a feature that not many modern media players have. You can also check the overlap option if you want a bit of crossfade between the songs that you are listening to.

In its simplicity, MCI-Browser does try to satisfy the needs of some music lovers. But unless you really want to use it with Windows 95, then there’s no real reason why you should choose it over a modern media player.