Reinstalling WMP

J

Jim Carlock

Thanks, Steven. I don't know what the permissions were reset to.
They didn't seem to be any different except for the fact that the
Security tab disappeared for some reason. KB890047 though
corrected that issue.

There were (or are) a couple problems. I've left the system in this
state from last year. I tightened up the security on it and figured I'll
just ignore all the errors in the error logs about unable to load a
profile.

Then I ran into a problem where I couldn't get Media Player to work
(after installing one of the latest Microsoft updates). I was thinking
along the lines that maybe a permissions thing was coming back to
haunt me, but it was never a permissions problem. I was lost and just
grabbing at who knows what, but it was something I wanted to look
into. And I found a couple links for restoring permissions on Win2K
and WinNT 3.5. So I figured it can't be too much different for XP. It
didn't work for XP and thus my original question on how to restore
XP permissions.

I ended up getting Media Player to work by uninstalling it, then doing a
reinstall by editing the .inf files that came with the WMP install package.

Had to go through a couple hoops to get it to work, so if anyone is
interested, here are the hoops, it's out of context in this group, so I'm
going to cross post and change the title...

GOAL: Install Windows Media Player 9 / Using .inf files, and force
the install into a "user-defined folder" rather than letting it install itself
into "\Program Files\Windows Media Player"...

1) Extract the self-installing .exe file (mpsetupxp.exe for Windows XP,
mpsetup.exe for Win2k/Win98/Me) downloaded from Microsoft:

2) Search the extracted files (specifically .inf files), for containing string:

MP2_FOLDER =

A space separates MP2_FOLDER from the equality symbol.

The files can be downloaded from the following links:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/9series/player.aspx

6 folders turned up in the Windows Explorer Search Results
when searching the Win2K/Win9x/Me package (13.3 MB).
http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/b/c/1bc0b1a3-c839-4b36-8f3c-19847ba09299/MPSetup.exe

drm.inf
mymusic.inf
setup_wm.inf
skins.inf
wmexpack.inf
wmp.inf

9.3 MB XP Package
http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/a/2/8a27acce-5c9e-46b3-8996-1e76c0413d17/MPSetupXP.exe

3) Change the line to the new folder. By default it gets installed
into "\Program Files\Windows Media Player". You'll only see
MP2_FOLDER = "Windows Media Player" there, so just
change that to something else. I changed it to: "MS\WMP".
There is another %PROGRAMFILES% in these files that is
set to "Program Files" which allows you to change from installing
to the "Program Files" folder to another folder ("Programs" if
you so desire).

4) After the MP2_FOLDER is configured in each of these files,
you can right click on each of the .inf files and click on "Install".

This takes care of the burden trying to get Windows Media Player
installed into a different folder. After the install of the .inf files is
conquered, reinstalling the original compressed mpsetup.exe seems
to set everything up correctly and do the reinstall into the new
folder properly.

The above represents a successful test for the task stated. It might
come in use for someone that is having problems installing WMP.

--
Jim Carlock
Please post replies to newsgroup.

The link below should help but note that if you only want to restore certain
security settings use the /area switch. In such case you could specify
filestore and regkeys for your purpose. --- Steve

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;313222

Sample Command to Reset Security Settings
NOTE: After security settings are applied, you cannot undo the changes
without restoring from a backup. If you are uncertain about resetting your
security settings back to the default security settings, you must make a
complete backup that includes the "System State" (the registry files). Items
that are reset include NTFS file system files and folders, the registry,
policies, services, privilege rights, and group membership.

To reset your operating system back to original installation default
security settings: 1. Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then press
ENTER.
2. Type secedit /configure /cfg %windir%\repair\secsetup.inf /db
secsetup.sdb /verbose, and then press ENTER. You receive a "Task is
completed" message, and a warning message that something could not be done.
You can safely ignore this message. For more information about this message,
view the %windir%\Security\Logs\Scesrv.log file.

/areas AreaName1AreaName2... Specifies the security areas to be applied to
the system. The default is "all areas." Each area must be separated by a
space.
 
J

Jim Carlock

Thanks Roger.

WMP10 doesn't seem to want to install to a different folder. Or
maybe I'm getting it to install to the other folder, but SFC keeps
moving files back to C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player
after they've been deleted. Sounds like an sfcfiles.dll problem.

Furthermore, the files placed in the other folder do not run when
installed to the other folder.

I'm getting a message box that explains:
"Windows Media Player is not installed properly and must be
reinstalled."

It then takes me to a link to download the 12MB file. If I go to
C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\ the software there
runs okay.

So I'm wondering if there is only ONE place that WMP 10 will
run from? Is there something that might be limiting it to running
only from the "Program Files\Windows Media Player" folder?

For the most part, the changes I applied to the .inf files involved
changing the MP2_FOLDER from:
MP2_FOLDER = "Windows Media Player"
to
MP2_FOLDER = "MS\WMP".

Furthermore, right clicking on some of the .inf files gives a strange
message indicating that WMP10 is NOT approved for XP.

The list of these problem .inf files:
WMSET10.inf
WMP10.inf
DRM10.inf

The message these files present when right clicking on them and
then clicking on INSTALL:

<message>
The software you are installing has not passed Windows Logo
testing to verify its compatibility with Windows XP (Tell me why
this testing is important.)

This software will not be installed. Contact your system administrator.
</message>

It looks like the "Program Files\Windows Media Player" path is
hard coded either in that file itself or in the sfcfiles.dll or both...

Hmmm... and there they are, hardcoded inside sfcfiles.dll:
%ProgramFiles%\Windows Media Player\mplayer2.exe
%ProgramFiles%\Windows Media Player\npdsplay.dll
%ProgramFiles%\Windows Media Player\npwmsdrm.dll
%ProgramFiles%\Windows Media Player\custsat.dll
%ProgramFiles%\Windows Media Player\migrate.exe
%ProgramFiles%\Windows Media Player\mpvis.dll
%ProgramFiles%\Windows Media Player\npdrmv2.dll
%ProgramFiles%\Windows Media Player\wmpband.dll
%ProgramFiles%\Windows Media Player\wmplayer.exe
%ProgramFiles%\Windows Media Player\wmpns.dll

The filenames inside of sfcfiles.dll are not stored as resource
strings, so that makes it a little harder to edit the sfcfiles.dll
program.

Anyone have a solution to this problem of installing WMP 10
into another folder and changing the contents of the sfcfiles.dll?

--
Jim Carlock
Please post replies to newsgroup.

You also Jim.
But I wonder, why not just install WMP10 for XP ?
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...53-3759-40cf-80d5-cde4bbe07999&displaylang=en
 

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