WMP won't open

[MICHAEL]

Windows Media player won't open, I click the
shortcut and nothing. I try clicking wmplayer.exe
directly and nothing happens. wmplayer.exe
and wmp.dll file versions are 11.0.6000.6324.

I've run "sfc /scannow". I haven't installed any new
software, except using portable VLC from a USB stick.
I see nothing in Event Viewer. I've tried renaming the
Media Player folder.

I've been using Vista since last June, and all through
the betas, this is the first time I've experienced this.

I'm prepared to do a system restore or use an image backup.
But, I am one of those that want to know *why* this has
happened.

Zach, I see you constantly asking about the registry key
"HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, CLSID\{6BF52A52-394A-11d3-B153-00C04F79FAA6}\InprocServer32"
but, I never see anyone answer you nor do I see you say what it *should* say.
Mine says, %SystemRoot%\system32\wmp.dll

Any ideas?

Thanks.


-Michael

 

[MICHAEL]

Yes, I've checked Task Manager, too.


* MICHAEL:

 

[MICHAEL]

Found the problem. I've been playing around
with portable apps on a usb stick, one of the
programs was Kaspersky Internet Security that
I tried to make portable, and it did work... sort of.
However, it also changed some registry values that
messed up some things. Went through the registry
and deleted all references to Kaspersky, that did the trick.
Don't know why it kept WMP from opening but it seems
to be that way. I could live without WMP, I don't use it
often since installing Media Monkey. But, it was one of
those things where- it should work, so you won't it to work.
It also kept javascript from working in IE and strangely the
extended view in services.msc would not work, either. The
standard view did. Anyway, deleting all those Kaspersky
registry references fixed those problems.

Now, does anyone know of a good AV that will run
from a USB stick? Besides ClamWin? Clam is about
as slow as a turtle on its back. I'm really just looking
for a scanner, I don't want anything that is going to make
permanent changes to the OS. I should have known better
trying to get Kaspersky to do that. It can be free or paid,
I just want something that works from a USB stick.

Take care,

Michael

* MICHAEL: