WMP 11 broken - how do I reinstall?

G

Guest

WMP 11 came with Vista Home Premium on my PC, bought in March. It worked
fine until a couple of months ago, when it stopped playing video files
embedded in web pages (browser is IE7). I believe this happened after a
"patch Tuesday" update. On clicking a video link I get the standard "page
not found - you may not be connected to the Internet" screen, or a blank
frame if the site uses frames. I have a workaround - I right-click the link,
select "save target as", then double-click the file on my hard drive - WMP11
then plays the file. However, I want it to behave as it used to.
Since the most recent "patch Tuesday", I have an additional problem: WMP11
will no longer play DVDs. I just get a blank, black screen (full screen) -
no error message.
I have looked at the list of installed programs with a view to repairing or
removing (with a view to reinstall) WMP11 but it is not listed. I am not
willing to reinstall the whole O/S to repair this one component.
I have checked various WMP settings as advised on other forums, but all
seems to be correct (and unchanged since the time that everything worked). I
have tried temporarily disabling anti-vrus (Kaspersky) and firewall (Windows)
but this had no effect. As I can download files successfully I doubt this is
a security problem anyway.
I have wasted many hours trying to find fixes for these problems - can
someone please tell me how to get WMP11 working as it did originally.
 
A

Alias

Christine said:
WMP 11 came with Vista Home Premium on my PC, bought in March. It worked
fine until a couple of months ago, when it stopped playing video files
embedded in web pages (browser is IE7). I believe this happened after a
"patch Tuesday" update. On clicking a video link I get the standard "page
not found - you may not be connected to the Internet" screen, or a blank
frame if the site uses frames. I have a workaround - I right-click the link,
select "save target as", then double-click the file on my hard drive - WMP11
then plays the file. However, I want it to behave as it used to.
Since the most recent "patch Tuesday", I have an additional problem: WMP11
will no longer play DVDs. I just get a blank, black screen (full screen) -
no error message.
I have looked at the list of installed programs with a view to repairing or
removing (with a view to reinstall) WMP11 but it is not listed. I am not
willing to reinstall the whole O/S to repair this one component.
I have checked various WMP settings as advised on other forums, but all
seems to be correct (and unchanged since the time that everything worked). I
have tried temporarily disabling anti-vrus (Kaspersky) and firewall (Windows)
but this had no effect. As I can download files successfully I doubt this is
a security problem anyway.
I have wasted many hours trying to find fixes for these problems - can
someone please tell me how to get WMP11 working as it did originally.
Click to expand...

Why don't you try removing the updates and see if they, indeed, are the
culprits?
 
K

Kue2

Try KB article 941229 just Google it. Might help.
October 2007 Cumulative Update for Media Center for Windows Vista
 
M

MICHAEL

* Christine:
WMP 11 came with Vista Home Premium on my PC, bought in March. It worked fine until a
couple of months ago, when it stopped playing video files embedded in web pages (browser is
IE7). I believe this happened after a "patch Tuesday" update. On clicking a video link I
get the standard "page not found - you may not be connected to the Internet" screen, or a
blank frame if the site uses frames. I have a workaround - I right-click the link, select
"save target as", then double-click the file on my hard drive - WMP11 then plays the file.
However, I want it to behave as it used to. Since the most recent "patch Tuesday", I have an
additional problem: WMP11 will no longer play DVDs. I just get a blank, black screen (full
screen) - no error message. I have looked at the list of installed programs with a view to
repairing or removing (with a view to reinstall) WMP11 but it is not listed. I am not
willing to reinstall the whole O/S to repair this one component. I have checked various WMP
settings as advised on other forums, but all seems to be correct (and unchanged since the
time that everything worked). I have tried temporarily disabling anti-vrus (Kaspersky) and
firewall (Windows) but this had no effect. As I can download files successfully I doubt
this is a security problem anyway. I have wasted many hours trying to find fixes for these
problems - can someone please tell me how to get WMP11 working as it did originally.
Click to expand...

As Kue said, try this update;

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=941651
Microsoft has released a cumulative update for Windows Media Player 11 in Windows Vista. This
update resolves some reliability issues in Windows Media Player 11 in Windows Vista. You can
achieve better reliability in various scenarios by installing this update.

Download page;
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...1a-eea4-4bbe-b3b8-fa25e4faff81&displaylang=en


-Michael
 
M

MICHAEL

* MICHAEL:
* Christine:

As Kue said, try this update;

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=941651 Microsoft has released a cumulative update for
Windows Media Player 11 in Windows Vista. This update resolves some reliability issues in
Windows Media Player 11 in Windows Vista. You can achieve better reliability in various
scenarios by installing this update.

Download page;
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...1a-eea4-4bbe-b3b8-fa25e4faff81&displaylang=en
Click to expand...
Actually, Kue was referring to the 941229 update.

Which is this;
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/941229
Microsoft has released the October 2007 Cumulative Update for Media Center for Windows Vista.
This update rollup is intended for computers that are running Windows Vista Home Premium or
Windows Vista Ultimate.

What the heck, might as well install both updates if you
haven't already.


-Michael
 
G

Guest

I believe many of the updates resolve security issues with other programs, so
I don't want to remove them if I can avoid it. They would only download
again anyway.
 
G

Guest

I installed 941229 - Windows wouldn't let me install the other one (said it
wasn't applicable to my system). I can now play DVDs again, but still no
luck with embedded video on websites (wmv files, which do play once I
download and save them, then double-click the file).

So, I still need a fix for the embedded video problem, which has been
happening since at least August.
 
M

MICHAEL

Try-
Start menu>Default Programs

Find Windows Media Player, click it.
First try ""Set this program as default"

If that doesn't work, try-
"Choose defaults for this program"
Then at the top, check "Select All". Save.

Maybe, this will work.


-Michael

* Christine:
 
M

MICHAEL

Also, look in IE's Tools>Manage Add-ons>Enable Disable Add-ons

Scroll for 'Windows Media Player". Besure it's "Enabled".


-Michael

* Christine:
 
G

Guest

Thanks, but no luck :-(

MICHAEL said:
Try-
Start menu>Default Programs

Find Windows Media Player, click it.
First try ""Set this program as default"

If that doesn't work, try-
"Choose defaults for this program"
Then at the top, check "Select All". Save.

Maybe, this will work.


-Michael

* Christine:
Click to expand...
 
G

Guest

Done that too.

MICHAEL said:
Also, look in IE's Tools>Manage Add-ons>Enable Disable Add-ons

Scroll for 'Windows Media Player". Besure it's "Enabled".


-Michael

* Christine:
Click to expand...
 
G

Guest

No, just Kaspersky AV (version 7). I tried temporarily disabling that but it
made no difference.
 
M

MICHAEL

I'm sorry, Christine.

I'm out of guesses.

Try the newsgroup;
microsoft.public.multimedia.windows.mediaplayer


-Michael

* Christine:
 
G

Guest

Thanks for the suggestion - but I already tried there weeks ago, with similar
responses (though fewer of them) to here. As these forums and that ng are
"official" microsoft ones, I was hoping the issue would elicit a response
from them. It's clearly a widespread problem.
 
C

Charlie Tame

Haven't been following this thread but is the problem still only with
web pages, because although it looks the same the things that jumps in
and plays "Embedded" media is actually an ActiveX control, so I am
guessing there may be a security issue behind this problem. Pity I have
no idea what though...

How about a link to a page that doesn't work for you so there's
something definite to work with...
 
Z

zachd [MSFT]

They're not supported, though, it's peer-only. And finding stuff in the
vista.general newsgroup is like finding a needle on Saturn.

You would want microsoft.public.windowsmedia.player . That's much easier
for me to generally keep track, and Neil and other helpful people are often
there to help out too.

But this is all peer supported. If you want actual support, you would need
to contact actual support. =)
http://zachd.com/pss/pss.html#psssupport
 

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