- Related Stories
-
Windows Media Player release skips a beat
October 25, 2006 -
Microsoft hopes 7 is lucky number for IE
October 18, 2006 -
Microsoft doesn't want Santa to ignore Vista
October 12, 2006 -
Microsoft unwraps Zune for holiday season
September 14, 2006 -
XP and Vista to get new media player
April 17, 2006
The software maker posted the free download of Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP after months of testing the new program, which includes built-in support for Urge, a subscription music service co-developed with MTV.
Microsoft originally planned to ship Windows Media Player 11 last week, but said it was not quite up to snuff.
The new media player is the second key feature of Windows Vista being made available to XP users ahead of the new operating system. Earlier this month, Microsoft released the final version of Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP. The Vista versions of both titles will look somewhat different and have a few extra features as well. Microsoft is slated to wrap up development of Vista and start selling it to large businesses next month, with the operating system hitting store shelves in January.
The release of Urge and the new media software have been somewhat overshadowed, given that during the year since Microsoft announced its plans, it has decided to offer its own Zune player and companion subscription service. The $250 Zune is set to go on sale in mid-November.
In addition to Urge, the new media player features improved searching, a more visual interface and supports new formats for ripping and playing music, namely Windows Media Audio Professional and WAV Lossless.
See more CNET content tagged:
Microsoft Windows Media Player, jukebox, media player, Windows Media, Microsoft Zune
Attention Apple....Itunes needs to monitor folders like WMP before I ever install it again. I have a server at home and I keep all of my music on it....so does my other family members.
WMP can monitor a folder....get a clue. Tomorrow WMP 11 will allow me to stream video from Windows XP to my Xbox 360....with Windows XP and the new 360 update...thanks MS!!
your wonderful OS!!! And for all the extra apps I need to keep it
secure. Thanks M$!!!!
mentioned some MS conspiracy called 10.4.8 but obviously they
are *LIARS* because OS X never needs patches to fix security holes
or performance issues.
And linux never needs patches either. We just call them kernel
updates. Totally different thing. Never a single buffer overrun in the
linux kernel.
C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\WMPNSCFG.exe
I removed the entry and rebooted. Things worked normal again. Did a Google search for "WMPNSCFG.exe". Found a discussion about this MS program and some new Windows services:
http://forums.windowsforum.org/index.php?showtopic=27704
A new MS service, "The Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service" had been added with a startup type of "automatic". Next, I looked at the XP System Event Log. I saw this error: "The Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service service depends on the Universal Plug and Play Device Host service which failed to start because of the following error:
The dependency service or group failed to start."
Well of course it failed, because Universal Plug And Play was not running, because that depends on SSDP Discovery service, which I had previously disabled (too many damn services that just create security holes). Now Microsoft could have avoided this whole MP 11 fiasco if it had not gone ahead and assumed I wanted to run a Mediaplayer Network Sharing Service, whatever that is.
Moral of story: Make sure you have a current Windows OS backup that you can restore to if you need to back out MP 11. Don't think that this program is just a nifty, innocuous music player, akin to Realplyer or Winamp. It loads a bunch of stuff behind your back that you have no idea about.
became unstable. I reviewed the Windows Registry keys under
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Runand and found a new entry that loads this at startup:
C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\WMPNSCFG.exe
I removed the entry and rebooted. Things worked normal again. Did a Google search for "WMPNSCFG.exe". Found a
discussion about this MS program and some new Windows services:
http://forums.windowsforum.org/index.php?showtopic=27704
A new MS service, "The Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service" had been added with a startup type of
"automatic". Next, I looked at the XP System Event Log. I saw this error: "The Windows Media Player Network Sharing
Service service depends on the Universal Plug and Play Device Host service which failed to start because of the
following error:
The dependency service or group failed to start."
Well of course it failed, because Universal Plug And Play was not running, because that depends on SSDP Discovery
service, which I had previously disabled (too many damn services that just create security holes). Now Microsoft could
have avoided this whole MP 11 fiasco if it had not gone ahead and assumed I wanted to run a Mediaplayer Network
Sharing Service, whatever that is.
Moral of story: Make sure you have a current Windows OS backup that you can restore to if you need to back out MP 11.
Don't think that this program is just a nifty, innocuous music player, akin to Realplyer or Winamp. It loads a bunch
of stuff behind your back that you have no idea about.
At least MS is consistent.
The second problem is that it plays all DVD's poorly. The picture is extremely dark, and there doesn't seem a way to fix it. At least PowerDVD still works and is reliable.
I did notice issues on a computer that I didn't turn off many running programs while installing. Simple fix? uninstall, turn off the other, non ms bloatware, and reinstall.
As for your dvd issue, there is a simple fix.
Check your Video drivers. There was a nVidia issue a couple of versions ago that messed up gamma settings.
If that doesn't work, right click the title bar (where it says Windows Media Player ;)), View, Show Enhancements, Video Settings. There you can adjust everything video.
Vala! Enjoy!
I use WMP because on the front of my laptop are the little volume buttons and stop and play buttons, and I use these regularly, and they don't work with iTunes. So... iTunes also doesn't have support for third party visualization codecs like MS does. I use G-Force, which is very colorful visualization.
You guys can hate MS all you want for their previous inability to produce good products, which I also think they have lagged in creativity and security. But the truth, is that MS is shaping up their products, and is transitioning control from Gates to Ozzie, and the next few releases in Windows, and IE 7.5, and Office, and all of their Live services, and their .Net framework, and their Expression Studios.... Everything is really starting to look a lot better. Even if they did get a lot of the ideas from other companies, they've still managed to evolve as a company and piece together what is becoming Microsoft 2.0.
You can have your doubts all you want, but I think MS is maturing and realizing their weaknesses. I do like Apple a lot though. Their products continue to have a certain level of creative quality. The iPod is perfect. Their docking menu in their OS is brilliant!! Steve Jobs is amazing at marketing!! They both have strengths and weaknesses. If I had enough money I would use them both.
ball and chain for my Sony Vaio desktop. Worst even, it didnt; even
ask me, but sucked up all the music out of my iTunes and created
another folder for the MP3's and AAC. BUT! It duplicated them and
I lost another 8gigs to music. It duplicated my library... did I do
soemthing wrong?
How do I prevent this?
- keeps crashing my computer
- by rsanchez October 26, 2007 5:46 PM PDT
- Does AMD have problems with wmpnetwk.exe. My computer keeps crashing with the blue screen.
- Reply to this comment
-
(29 Comments)