Downgrade Windows Media Player 12 to WMP 11 on Windows 7

[Shantimay]

When I was on Vista I had no problem using Windows Media Player. When I switched to Windows 7 it started to cause me with a bunch of problems. The Windows Media Player 12 that has come with this is nothing but the other name of the trouble. To list some trouble, it sometimes get duplicate tracks appearing. It appears at startup or just at random times while I'm playing through my music library. Also, sometimes when I open WMP I find that there is no media library.

[Eric B]

Actually Windows 7 is the latest version of Microsoft Windows. Windows 7 comes with Windows Media Player 12, which is the latest version of Microsoft media. I have however found that Windows Media Player 12, is causing problem to many users. If you want to downgrade Windows Media Player 12 to WMP 11 you can follow the steps below:

• On the Windows 7 search bar, open start menu and then type "services.msc"
• Now stop the Windows Media Player network Sharing Service.
• Now download Windows Media Player 11 installer and run it.
• On the Start Menu Search bar type "regedit" and delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Setup\Installed Version registry key.
• Now restart Windows 7 to see the difference.

Hope that this works

[ThoMas321]

Yes it is true that Windows Media Player is causing problems to the users. It has also caused me too, but not to the extent that you have described. I however made it work by clearing the library and starting from scratch. In WMP 12 press the Alt key . Under the Tools go to Advanced and then finally select Restore Media Library. Now this will empty the library. After this just relaunch the Windows Media Player. I guess that your library is corrupt and each time you open WMP it try's to re-import everything

[aneeqa]

Having somewhat similar issues, but in addition to this I also loose file location as well as doubling the files. It plays the files one or two times but after doing that it informs me that the file is of wrong type. I have reinstalled clean windows 7, but it still does the same. I have sent error reports to microsoft and a description of what it's doing, I hope they find a fix, but can you suggest me some more regarding this before them.

[Sam.D]

I think,I found something really interesting for you and of-course of your business. You can change WMP 12 to WMP 11. If you are unconformable with WMP 12 then here is the way to downgrade your Windows 7 WMP 12 to Window Media player 11. Just follow these simple steps:

1. First of all please download the WMP installer package for Windows 7.
2. Now on the Windows 7 search bar, type services.msc.
3. After all this is done you, need to stop Windows Media Player network Sharing Service.
4. After this you need to take the ownership of all the files starting with “wmp” in System32 folderwmploc.dll.mui in “Sytem32\en-us\” folder
5. Once done with this run Windows Media Player 11 Installer.
6. Now on the Start Menu Search bar, type Regedit and delete following Registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Setup\Installed Versions
7. Restart the system

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[Shantimay]

I tried following your steps. I got stuck in the 4th step asking to take the Ownership of the files that you have mentioned. I can not take the ownership of the files. Can you please suggest me the ways in which I can do that. Your description and the steps make me feel that they are going to work for me, if I get through this step. Please mention how this can be done. Thanks.

[Sam.D]

Definitely I can tell you the way. First of all you need to simply need to download own.zip file. You can download it from the official sites. Then extract the .zip file and run the own.org file. Now make a right click on any folder there you will find Take Ownership option. In this way you can take the ownership of the files. Now if you want to uninstall it you just need to download own_rem.zip file and run it on Windows 7. I think this is enough for what you want. Hope you will make the things work.