Windows Media Player

roamer

Im fixing a computer for a guy running xp sp1. Hes got media player installed and when you open it, it plays music or whatever but it stays minimised on the bottom bar. If i click it inverts but it wont maximize or anything. If I right click, I get the usual options. Even, if I click close though after right clicking it wont close. It will only close through ctrl+alt+del. Ive tried reinstalling and same problem.Then, I set-up a new user and logged in as them it worked. So he used this new user for a while (then 3 or 4 days later) same problem started happening. registry check didn't turn up anything.
Whats wrong????

440Hz

whats wrong??

maybe that he is using a PC! or windows!!

come to the bright-side! linux or os x even!

Sorry cant advise on the prob tho - tis an odd one!!

Ruu_Old

is it the latest version of media player? if not try downloading the upgrade.

aidan_walsh

440Hz wrote:

whats wrong??

maybe that he is using a PC! or windows!!

come to the bright-side! linux or os x even!

Sorry cant advise on the prob tho - tis an odd one!!

:rolleyes:

Anyhoo...

Sounds like his preferences are fusked. Try deleting the folders in C:\Documents and Settings\$USER$\Application Data\Microsoft\Media Player and C:\Documents and Settings\$USER$\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Media Player (both hidden folders) and see if that does any good.

Failing that, try backing up and deleting the settings in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer.

If not, you may want to try reinstalling the application.

roamer

yeah Aidan. That does seem to be the problem alright because the new user was fine when I logged in. However, the same thing happened again after a few days. So, its obviously something frigging up the preferences??

Sam Vimes

440Hz wrote:

whats wrong??

maybe that he is using a PC! or windows!!

come to the bright-side! linux or os x even!

Sorry cant advise on the prob tho - tis an odd one!!

read the charter

Unhelpful comments (e.g. "switch to linux" when encountering a windows problem) will result in a one day ban.

smeggle

440Hz wrote:

whats wrong??

maybe that he is using a PC! or windows!!

come to the bright-side! linux or os x even!

Sorry cant advise on the prob tho - tis an odd one!!

to the op - try winamp - far superior to wmp. www.winamp.com

I'm just waiting for the time when enough users start using os x or Linux and enough code is generated so as these two os's are as compromisable as windows.

it's quite simple if you do the math. Currently 80%+ use windows. That equates to one heck of a lot more code being generated and that equals far more chance of problems being exposed and really some are so insignificant as to be ludicrous.

And it has been proven in tests that windows server is more secure than Linux and also that Linux's main security protocol SHA1 was cracked earlier this year (src: /.). I'm really starting to get sick of eletist os x and linux users giving of there superior to windows garbage. It just isn't true.

Why are there hardly any virus's written for either? simple because of a couple of things.

1. More people use windows and therefore more money/damage can be done.
2. Hardly any reason to compromise os x or Linux - goto 1 for reason.

If that gives me a 1 day ban then great as long as those idiot linux/os x gurus get some sence and do there math properly.. :mad:

Sparky

smeggle wrote:

to the op - try winamp - far superior to wmp. www.winamp.com

I'm just waiting for the time when enough users start using os x or Linux and enough code is generated so as these two os's are as compromisable as windows.

it's quite simple if you do the math. Currently 80%+ use windows. That equates to one heck of a lot more code being generated and that equals far more chance of problems being exposed and really some are so insignificant as to be ludicrous.

And it has been proven in tests that windows server is more secure than Linux and also that Linux's main security protocol SHA1 was cracked earlier this year (src: /.). I'm really starting to get sick of eletist os x and linux users giving of there superior to windows garbage. It just isn't true.

Why are there hardly any virus's written for either? simple because of a couple of things.

1. More people use windows and therefore more money/damage can be done.
2. Hardly any reason to compromise os x or Linux - goto 1 for reason.

If that gives me a 1 day ban then great as long as those idiot linux/os x gurus get some sence and do there math properly.. :mad:

yeah winamp is good, it also has lots of online radio streams and eh....some very interesting video streams aswell.

smeggle

Sparky_S wrote:

yeah winamp is good, it also has lots of online radio streams and eh....some very interesting video streams aswell.

yeah agreed on the vid streams - that is the only downside and really does need to be stopped. Only thing that spoils it - apart from AOHell now owning it! What there doing there is actually illegal (I think) under American Law as they know a lot of under 18's use it. still it's one of the best there is and you can learn to use milkdrop to create some awesome visuals of your own...(If your good at math that is lol)

zuma

For audio:
WinAMP

For Video:
CCCP and choose Media Player Classic during setup.

For certain MP4(AVC/H.264) encoded video:
Nero Showtime.

You will never need another media player again unless you are viewing DRM content and then you MUST use Windows Media Player!!!

Khannie

440Hz wrote:

come to the bright-side! linux or os x even!

Read the charter please.

_Turismo4

roamer wrote:

Im fixing a computer for a guy running xp sp1. Hes got media player installed and when you open it, it plays music or whatever but it stays minimised on the bottom bar. If i click it inverts but it wont maximize or anything. If I right click, I get the usual options. Even, if I click close though after right clicking it wont close. It will only close through ctrl+alt+del. Ive tried reinstalling and same problem.Then, I set-up a new user and logged in as them it worked. So he used this new user for a while (then 3 or 4 days later) same problem started happening. registry check didn't turn up anything.
Whats wrong????

Download media player 10 and see if that helps?
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b446ae53-3759-40cf-80d5-cde4bbe07999&displaylang=en

peepsbates

440Hz wrote:

whats wrong??

maybe that he is using a PC! or windows!!

come to the bright-side! linux or os x even!

Sorry cant advise on the prob tho - tis an odd one!!

Yap Yap Yap

srdb20

My reccomendation is to junk media player, use winamp!

But... If your insistant on using media player,
I would first un-install media player, and remove all aspects of it including reg entries and folders.

Do a full system scan for anything that might corrupt your settings.
When finished the scan, re-boot machine install media player, preferably a fresh downloaded copy from Microsft (or winamp).

See if that works!

mp3guy

zuma wrote:

For Video:
CCCP and choose Media Player Classic during setup.

Nah, VLC, www.videolan.org is much better

BopNiblets

But VLC doesn't play Real files (according to that website)

Go MPC (included with these)!
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Real_Alternative.htm
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/QuickTime_Alternative.htm

roamer

mmmh, turns out after inspecting it again. In one profile, right click and nothing works (not even close). In other profile, it turns out it had dissapeared to the edge of the screen which I eventually managed to pull back in. I deleted all the profile settings for media player first by the way but it didn't make a difference.

Hes happy now, but what is the story with it?

Wertz

Not sure if this is applicable to your problem but I had to reinstall WMP10 a few weeks back (mp3 ripping issues)....now I've always ran WMP10 in it's miniature taskbar format. When reinstalling I got an onscreen message that if I used the taskbar WMP then I should turn it off temporarily whilst the player was updating as it could cause problems.