Win Media Player 9.00

[jmtjet]

I downloaded and installed Media Plaver v9.0 from the MS web site. Now, my computer has slowed down. What would cause a general slow down that is associated with the media player? My OS is Windows 2000 pro. with 256 MB ram, 40 gB HD, 900 Athlon processor. If I can't correct this problem,I'm going to un-install the player and get Real player or Quicktime or something else. Any ideas. Thanks,jmtjet

[spragers2]

You answered your own question. You installed Media Player 9.x, which is bloated, and is probably running at startup. Go to start -> run -> type in "MSCONFIG" <enter> then click the startup tab, look for a media player entry and uncheck it.

1.) Media Player becomes more bloated with each and every release. I'm still using 6.x, that came with Win98, screapped 7 that shipped with ME, and will NEVER upgrade to the newer versions until absolutely forced to. To give you an example, my brother managed to trash his entire computer because he foolishly clicked "yes" when Windows told him he should upgrade to a "newer" version of media player...

2.) DO NOT EVER install RealPlayer. There is nothing you can say to justify installing this bloated, spyware-filled software package on your machine.

3.) DITTO FOR QT - The only thing less stable than a port from Windows to Mac is a port from Mac to Windows :D Talk about silly - if you open QuickTime movie player, then go file -> open to open a movie file, IT OPENS A NEW PLAYER to play the movie - duh. I'd like to meet the programmers who came up with that one!

[jmtjet]

Thanks,Spragers. I'll D/L startup cop and use it disable media player at start up-Windoze 2000 you know. :)

[Gerdog]

I had problems also with version 9, and uninstalling it did NOT return WMP 7 as Microsoft claimed it would. It was still easy enough to download and reinstall version 7.1 though. It's even available at sites other than Microsoft's, like this one:
http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/programs/MicrosoftMediaPlayer/
After unstalling version 9, the installation files are still on the hard drive in a Windows Media Player folder, so you might want to delete that too before reinstalling 7.1.
I prefer to use Winamp or MusicMatch Jukebox for playing music as they are both easier on system resources than Media Player.
Zoom Player is a dandy free program for playing video files. It is also less resource hungry than WMP or Real:
http://www.simtel.net/pub/dl/61119.shtml