Subscribe Feed (RSS)Windows Media Player 12 in Windows 7 has a new UI that doesn’t include as many sleek transparency features as WMP 11 did, and Microsoft also for some reason removed the Advanced Tag Editor, one of my favorite features because my WMP Custom Album Art tutorial uses it, and because you can edit a whole albums tags in batch.
I see no real benefit to using Windows Media Player 12, as Windows Media Player 11 seems, at least to me, to be a much more well-rounded, and better looking too, music / video organizer and player.
How to install Windows Media Player 11 onto Windows 7:
- Go to the start menu, type services.msc and hit enter.
- Stop the Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service.
- Install this registry edit (zipped): Take Ownership Context Menu Hack.
- Now take ownership of these items by selecting them in Windows Explorer and then right-clicking them and selecting Take Ownership in the context menu:All files in “Program Files\Windows Media Player\” folder
All files starting with “wmp” in System32 folder
wmploc.dll.mui in “System32\en-us\” folder.
- Download Windows Media Player 11 for Windows 7 and install. If you get an error message saying that wmploc.dll.mui is in use by a process, then kill sidebar.exe. You’ll need to restart after install Windows Media Player.
- Run regedit and delete the key “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Setup\Installed Versions”.
- If you want a good Windows 7 theme for WMP 11, check this one out:
http://bogo-d.deviantart.com/art/7-for-Windows-Media-Player-11-105796300
This skin is quite amazing – it combines the best elements of both WMP 11 and 12 to make an amazing looking skin.
I hope that you’ve enjoyed my tutorial, and enjoy your newly installed WMP 11 on Windows 7!
A better version of this tutorial: http://www.askvg.com/how-to-get-windows-media-player-wmp-taskbar-toolbar-back-in-windows-7/
Tags: 11, 12, audio, microsoft, Music, vista, windows, windows 7, windows media player, WMP, xp
