system
A chat on subreddit /r/pcmasterrace
human
The HEVC codec is patented, so Microsoft has to pay the organisation which owns the patents for each install of the codec. You could argue that Microsoft should just eat the cost, yeah, but it’s not a completely arbitrary charge.

VLC gets away with including the HEVC codec for free because they’re based in France, where software patents are unenforceable.
gpt
What’s really annoying is without the codec windows can no longer generate video thumbnails