wmplayer.exe running in background

[Preppy Veteran]

Aberrant behavior is interesting. This doesn't seem like aberrant behavior, but I don't know what in particular you're specifically concerned about. You can check the command line for the player to see what it was told to go do, but if WMDC is invoking the player, this is by design. Things are allowed to start the player. =\

[nevets]

Aberrant behavior is interesting. This doesn't seem like aberrant behavior, but I don't know what in particular you're specifically concerned about. You can check the command line for the player to see what it was told to go do, but if WMDC is invoking the player, this is by design. Things are allowed to start the player. =\

WMDC had not been installed in any of the versions. WMP11 never run. MCE never run. Untouched reinstall (except for sidebar... having calendar,weather,clock,cpu meter)

My concerns, wmplayer.exe process take a very high priority in disk and processor. (hence the "freeze" effect)

ALSO, it's going through my files that are randomly on other partitions and drives.

Aberrant behavior might be questionable until one installs the N-editions (without WMP11) and everything runs fine without any wmplayer.exe processes running.

Well, I don't think I will try to hunt down this issue, but instead get away from it. If anybody knows how I can watch wmv/wmv HD without WMP11, I will be forever grateful! :D

I would just have gone back to XP, except there's some weird issue with my Sony VGC-VA10G and the MTRON SSD drive. Keeps making the drive "unformatted" after I install XP. :|

Off-Topic Rant: I have to hard reset my treo 700w every time I reinstall vista in order for the bluetooth sync to work! Will not see activesync service till after hard reset. :blink:

[Preppy Veteran]

Sorry, I saw that reference towards the tail end of your post, and thought that was the reference you were making.

Your two options for *diagnosis* are to capture a DMP in the player of use (long way to do this) or to get the command line - presumably something is remoting the player here, whether or not you notice the functionality attempt. The command line or the DMP may potentially indicate what that is.

I'm running a variety of Vista systems and don't see this behavior.

[Neoprimal]

I'm running Vista SP1. On boot-up, there is always a process running, wmplayer.exe. I can't find any service or start up program that has anything to do with Windows Media Player except some network thing (Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service Configuration Application), and stopping this service doesn't get rid of this particular process, just wmpnscfg.exe. It messes with my keyboard's media keys as pause/next/etc button signals go to this process instead of WinAMP. I can kill it in task manager and all's good in the world, but I have to do this on every boot.

I only use WMPlayer for video but I've found that I also have the issue where closing WMP doesn't stop music playing, I have to click the stop button first. By killing this rogue wmplayer.exe process, I don't get this issue any more.

In addition to what others have said, you may want to try disabling it if you have any sideshow devices. I have a G15 keyboard which in Vista becomes sideshow capable. Some mid end Dell PCs also have that sideshow window and of course more high end laptops are being build with the new Vista sideshow window. For me, disabling the Windows Media Player plugin worked like a charm. Originally I had thought the issue was the codec pack I had installed, but since uninstalling didn't work I looked for other possible issues.

Folder Monitoring is not the issue, since that is handled AFTER wmplayer.exe has started.

Windows Media Sharing is also not the culprit, as that is not only handled by another exe file but also only seems to 'activate' after wmp has been started on the system.

I ruled out these 2 and so came up with outside plugins accessing the program ie: sidebar and sideshow and disabling the sideshow plugin seemed to fix my 'running in background' issue AS WELL AS wmplayer.exe starting right back without it's guy after I close it.

Good Luck and I hope this solution helps.

[hzhkx4]

FYI - I also had the same problem (wmplayer.exe always running, even if you kill the task it respawned). I tried turning of all the sharing, killing sync center, disabling monitoring in WMP, etc. None worked.

What DID work was removing the "Windows Media Player" SideShow gadget (ControlPanel > Side Show). At one point I turned this on, not really knowing what it's for. Anyhow, removing this did the trick. Now WMP isn't always running, and it closes correctly (the audio would still play on exit before).

Thanks!

[Alwest]

I have the same/similar problem, first noticed in past two weeks with hourglass (the blue circle in Vista) pulsing every two seconds when using Media Center. Task Manager reveals the cause - wmplayer.exe constantly starting and stopping approx. every two seconds and taking up about 40% cpu in the process.

Following the advice in the preceding posts, I haven't found a solution but:

1. If you shut down Media Centre, the problem (and wmplayer.exe) disappears. Anecdotally, it seems that Media Centre is responsible in my case.

2. Using the command - [tasklist /V /FI "IMAGENAME eq wmplayer.exe"] - in a DOS Window reveals that the associated process is "DDE Server Window" (and I thought DDE was so Windows 95!) suggesting that something else is trying to connect to Media Player as a DDE client and (presumably) this is failing...

I have Vista SP1 and short of reinstalling everything (bitter experience deters me here) I have no further ideas. Help!

[bazcook]

Well, I'm glad I'm not alone in this frustration!

But, after some digging on the net (a lot of sites suggesting it might be a cleverly named trojan/virus - many scans suggested otherwise - and well as one solution that seemed possible) and some hit/miss stuff on my own, I may have stumbled upon the solution!

Using Sysinternals Process Explorer, I found that wmplayer.exe was listed as a subsection of mobsync.exe (Windows Sync). I initially tried to reset its Priority to 'Low' but it wouldn't stick, so I would just kill it off.

So...activated by Windows Sync Center, huh? Yet opening Start > Programs > Accessories > Sync Center showed no Sync Partnerships active. Hmm....

Here's where the one solution noted above came into play -

- Click on Set up New Partnership.

- I found that it now listed a flash USB flash drive I have attached to my machine.

- Right click > Setup that drive.

- At this point, WMP popped up, along with a warning - something about my drive not being big enough, did I really want to continue? - I said 'Yes'.

- WMP went away with a new window in its place and I unchecked the 'Sync this Device Automatically'. Exited from there.

(I guess it goes without saying if you have more than one drive listed, you'll need to repeat this Setup)

Closed Sync Centre. Rebooted and, merde and voila!, no more wmplayer.exe trying to load at boot!

All this just tried this morning. I'm hoping it lasts!

;)

Jeez, what a palaver. I why is all this hidden away with no mention of it anywhere? Anyhoo, I guess one wants to be sure if you install a brand new sync'able device, that you disable auto-sync as above.

Hope this helps!

[Sven Van de Velde]

I have the same/similar problem, first noticed in past two weeks with hourglass (the blue circle in Vista) pulsing every two seconds when using Media Center. Task Manager reveals the cause - wmplayer.exe constantly starting and stopping approx. every two seconds and taking up about 40% cpu in the process.

Following the advice in the preceding posts, I haven't found a solution but:

1. If you shut down Media Centre, the problem (and wmplayer.exe) disappears. Anecdotally, it seems that Media Centre is responsible in my case.

2. Using the command - [tasklist /V /FI "IMAGENAME eq wmplayer.exe"] - in a DOS Window reveals that the associated process is "DDE Server Window" (and I thought DDE was so Windows 95!) suggesting that something else is trying to connect to Media Player as a DDE client and (presumably) this is failing...

I have Vista SP1 and short of reinstalling everything (bitter experience deters me here) I have no further ideas. Help!

All,

I've had the same problem and have been searching for a solution. Your posts gave me some hints, but it didn't resolve my problem. My problem was as follows:

When I start Media Center, Media Player was starting and stopping in the background. I noticed this also through the "busy" blue circle on the mouse pointer. The problem occurred only when I had Logitech Setpoint installed. Uninstalling the setpoint software resolved my issue, however, then I could not exploit my quite expensive Logitech MX Air mouse to the full functionality... I am still in communication with Logitech to resolve the problem, and I understand that it is quite hard for them to help from a distance. So I started searching myself for the solution:

This is what I've tried, which did not solve the issue:

1. Changiing ALL USB configurations (by switching and unplugging my USB devices) -> did not work.

2. Installing / reinstalling setpoint -> did not work

3. Reinstalling completely Windows Vista from scratch -> did not work. Problem occurred on clean install of Vista Home (after applying all updates).

4. Your Media Player synchronization solution mentioned below in the post. It seemed to work, however, after rebooting, media player was AGAIN starting and stopping in the background, while checking the USB storage device sync settings in Media Player as switched off) -> did not work.

5. Disabling UAC / Rebooting / Testing / Enabling UAC / Rebooting / Testing -> did not work.

I have investigated the process hierarchy with microsoft Process Explorer. Media Player is indeed started and stopping under the hierarchy of Logitech Setpoint. Find the attached Process Explorer screen capture for PROOF. (Red and Green lines show the start/stop of Media Player).

Maybe this helps out some Vista techies.

Sven

Media_Player_starting_and_stopping_under_Setpoint..bmp

Edited December 26, 2008 by Sven Van de Velde

[ChromeX]

not that may help, but can't that be caused by WLM Plugin for music? I have the same problem everyday with wmplayer, if it runs minimized into the taskbar or in opened window, it does not change, on closing the process is still running.

[SuperKid]

I guess that this bug is now fixed in windows 7?

[Alwest]

All,

I've had the same problem and have been searching for a solution. Your posts gave me some hints, but it didn't resolve my problem. My problem was as follows:

When I start Media Center, Media Player was starting and stopping in the background. I noticed this also through the "busy" blue circle on the mouse pointer. The problem occurred only when I had Logitech Setpoint installed. Uninstalling the setpoint software resolved my issue, however, then I could not exploit my quite expensive Logitech MX Air mouse to the full functionality... I am still in communication with Logitech to resolve the problem, and I understand that it is quite hard for them to help from a distance. So I started searching myself for the solution:

This is what I've tried, which did not solve the issue:

1. Changiing ALL USB configurations (by switching and unplugging my USB devices) -> did not work.

2. Installing / reinstalling setpoint -> did not work

3. Reinstalling completely Windows Vista from scratch -> did not work. Problem occurred on clean install of Vista Home (after applying all updates).

4. Your Media Player synchronization solution mentioned below in the post. It seemed to work, however, after rebooting, media player was AGAIN starting and stopping in the background, while checking the USB storage device sync settings in Media Player as switched off) -> did not work.

5. Disabling UAC / Rebooting / Testing / Enabling UAC / Rebooting / Testing -> did not work.

I have investigated the process hierarchy with microsoft Process Explorer. Media Player is indeed started and stopping under the hierarchy of Logitech Setpoint. Find the attached Process Explorer screen capture for PROOF. (Red and Green lines show the start/stop of Media Player).

Maybe this helps out some Vista techies.

Sven

@Sven - many thanks for your insight, which has helped me discover what is causing my problem (and what a useful tool Process Explorer is!!)

I suspect that there are 2 quite separate problems being referred to in this post anyway. The problem of wmplayer.exe not terminating properly is not what I am suffering but my problem is that wmplayer.exe is being mysteriously started & stopped in the background every 2 secs when Media Center is running - using up about 25% CPU in the process.

I too have the MX Air mouse and I can confirm the the Logitech Setpoint software seems to be the guilty party. Or put another way - if you terminate SetPoint.exe the problem goes away. Just why the mouse software is invoking wmplayer.exe is a total mystery. The SetPoint mouse software doesn't need to be running anyway, so just move the shortcut out of your Startup folder onto the Desktop & and click only when needed.

An alternative - if you don't want to lose the "advanced features" of the mouse (battery level for instance) - just add a shortcut to Media Player into your Startup folder so that wmplayer.exe is always loaded, avoiding a new instance of it being started/stopped by SetPoint.

Weird but true.

[Scotishirony]

I'm running Vista SP1. On boot-up, there is always a process running, wmplayer.exe. I can't find any service or start up program that has anything to do with Windows Media Player except some network thing (Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service Configuration Application), and stopping this service doesn't get rid of this particular process, just wmpnscfg.exe. It messes with my keyboard's media keys as pause/next/etc button signals go to this process instead of WinAMP. I can kill it in task manager and all's good in the world, but I have to do this on every boot.

I only use WMPlayer for video but I've found that I also have the issue where closing WMP doesn't stop music playing, I have to click the stop button first. By killing this rogue wmplayer.exe process, I don't get this issue any more.

If you have a goggle sidebar with a Windows Doc or Windows sidebar with Windows DOC this causes wmplayer.exe to run in processes because it's used remotely when Windows DOC is active.

Disabling the Windows DOC should stop the process also stopping it from loading again.

Look at the snapshots

[Scotishirony]

If you have a goggle sidebar with a Windows Doc or Windows sidebar with Windows DOC this causes wmplayer.exe to run in processes because it's used remotely when Windows DOC is active.

Disabling the Windows DOC should stop the process also stopping it from loading again.

Look at the snapshots

Now look at the snapshot after I removed My Windows DOC

[MaudDib]

Might be old news, but wmplayer has been annoying me to all hell and back always sitting in my task manager. Did some digging and found the Windows SideShow process running as well.

In Control Panel, Hardware and Sound, Windows SideShow, click 'turn gadgets on or off', and youll see checkboxes for gadgets running in SideShow. check em off, and the both processes went away. Im running a logitech G15 keyboard, either logitech drivers or some windows update installed the gadgets in there...either way, no more wmplayer.exe :devil: