can't uninstall Windows Media Player 11

[longevity]

Hi, I’m using Windows XP with Windows Media Player 11. Since I upgraded to WMP 11 I have came across many problems with the same, sometimes in playback and sometimes in file format. Finally decided to rollback to version 10 which I used for years and never had any problems. But when I go to remove WMP 11 a popup box comes up saying me

“This may affect other programs; are you sure you want to continue?”

Surprisingly there is no button to confirm, continue or OK. Only the button available there is “Cancel.” So how can I continue or uninstall WMP 11? Somebody please help. I want to get rid of WMP 11 and use v10. Thank you.

[Abdulmajid]

First of all let me tell you that you wont be able to uninstall WMP from Add and Remove programs because it is built-in windows component. So just below “Add/Remove Programs” there will be “Add/Remove Windows Component”. Try removing from there. It should work. Also, just check the log at c:\windows\wmsetup.log and see what is mentioned over there.

[arpeggio]

To uninstall Windows Media Player 11 and rollback to the native Windows media player 9 under Windows XP, try the following procedure:

1. Open control panel, click on the Add or Remove Programs icon and click on the Add/Remove Windows components button (in the right pane).

2. Scroll the list of programs, uncheck Windows Media Player check mark, click next then finish (this will temporarily disable Windows Media Player)

3. Click Start, click Run, type %windir%\$ntUninstallwmp11$\spuninst\spuninst.exe, and then click OK.

4. Follow instructions to uninstall Windows Media Player 11. BTW don't worry about the warning message concerning a list of programs that might not work properly if you proceed.

P.S. If you get an error message on 'step 3', saying that Windows cannot find the specified path, the folder '$ntUninstallwmp11$' is probably missing. Get it from another computer which runs Windows Media Player 11 under Windows XP SP2 or SP3, copy it in your C:\Windows directory and then try again.

Arpeggio

[Arpeggiofan]

Arpeggio nailed it for me. There was no Windows Media Player visible in the Add/Remove box, even with the 'show all' box ticked. I have an iffy version of XP that came on my PC, but its been working okay for nearly 7 years. WGA downloaded onto it yesterday, tried to download WMP11 and screwed up my old version of Windows Media Player so it would not load, even if I clicked on the older version of wmplayer.exe
Arpeggio's fix has cured it. My old version of WMP is working again. Thank you!