AboutGabriel Expertise I answer a variety of music/sound editing related questions. I have multiple music degrees and years of experience in the field.
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Recently I have been unable to open my Windows Media Player. I keep getting a message that says; " To use Windows Media Player, log off from Windows, log back on, and then start Windows Media Player". I tried this several times without success, although I may be doing it incorrectly.
I have Windows XP Professional, on a Dell computer. Windows Media Player always worked fine until last week. The only change that I have made is the addition of a Spyware program called 'STOP-ZILLA'
Thanks and Regards, Ken.
Answer Hello,
Thank you for writing.
I can provide some steps that might help though there are likely some details about your computer set-up that I don't know about that could still prevent the player from properly functioning.
Here are a few steps you can try, a sort of process of elimination.
1. Disconnect your internet, physically unplug the ethernet wire...
Okay... let's try this again. AllExpert's "spellcheck" just deleted all of my text below this point! (Something I plan on never using again! Especially considering the lengthy response I just typed.)
1. Disconnect your internet (wired & wireless).
2. Disable/shut down all anti-virus & anti-spyware.
3. Try Windows Media Player. If no luck, try next step...
4. Be sure you have a back-up of anti-virus & anti-spyware, then temporarily uninstall it.
5. Reboot the pc. Try Windows Media Player. If no luck, try next step...
6. Uninstall & reinstall Windows Media Player. Reboot the pc again (unfortunately, sometimes Windows requires rebooting even when it doesn't tell you to do it, this allows "internal" files to basically register or be "recognized" and associate the program with the OS.)
7. Try Windows Media Player. If no luck, try next step...
8. Try a newer version of the player or a completely different copy from another source of the same (or older) version. If still no luck, try an alternative media player.
9. If still no luck, then at this point we enter the realm of anything I might be unaware of with your computer set-up. Go ahead and re-install all anti-virus & anti-spyware applications at this time; then go ahead and reconnect your internet (wired & wireless); reboot.
10. (If still no luck, have a local computer technician check it out - with their opportunity to have hands-on trial & error testing they'll hopefully be able to resolve the issue for you.)
Best of luck!
-Prof.
P.S.- Also make sure your Windows operating system is up to date (most recent service pack, bug-fixes, etc.) If you ever get extremely frustrated with Microsoft, consider trying Linux/Unix and/or Mac a try. (I strongly "disliked" the old Mac operating system, version 9 and older, though the new version 10+, "Mac OS X", is actually not even the original Mac OS anymore, at the core of the system it's running Unix! If you'd like to try an amazing media-based OS, check out the "Ubuntu Studio" Linux. It's quite impressive. (I use all of the operating systems, including Windows, so I won't recommend one over the other, it's really a personal taste thing.) Best of luck!
