...been done

Personally i believe there is spyware /trojan causing the problem ,I would suggest goint ot the security section and posting a hijackthis log .

I am having a similar problem. WMP starts when Windows starts, and when I close it, it restarts itself.

The system is a laptop with Windows XP Pro installed on it.

I have searched the Startup menu for anything remotely related to WMP, and the only thing there is desktop.ini. I have searched the registry with no results so far. I have run Norton AV, AVG, AdAware, SpySweeper, and I am currently running Spybot. So far, nothing! I have inspected system.ini and win.ini, and searched for autoexec.nt. Still nothing.

I have searched the Microsoft support site with no success. I ran several searches on Google, and this is the only thing I have found that remotely resembles my problem.

Any ideas?

Just in case anyone is still watching this thread, check this registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

It has entries for each program that Windows will run when it starts. The original problem that started this thread may be related to an entry here that executes WMP at Windows startup.

I had 2 entries in here, one for a DVD player's service and another one called WMC_AutoUpdate (which was empty). I removed both of them. I don't know if either of them were related to my WMP problem, because I also have SpySweeper running in realtime protection mode, but whatever I did seems to be taking care of my WMP auto-restart problem.

if like me you've had this problem for a while, checked everything it should be and you're still pulling your hair out in frustration, then this reply should help you. theres a hidden reg entry which causes windows media player to load on startup in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\Run

delete this and you should be sorted!

i also found some leftover entries from other spyware there. hope this helps you as it did for me. :lol:

Hey bud, It will not create no problems, yes that is the correct name for it when you look for it in th RegEdit. Iv done this before twice infact because of a parasite. Like I said It worked, so please. dont flame someone elses opinion.

It may not be what You do because your unsure or do not know what RegEdit is or does or can do. Im not say you dont, im just saying is that If you do that, it will delete everything under the wmplayer profile. Thats all there is too it. Install your Windows XP Disk, goto Start. Control Panel, and remove Programs, look on the left Panel, choose add/remove Programs, itll open up the win cd in your cd rom drive, when the options come up, make sure you disable it to insure its uninstalled. All of that is 1,2,3, I know it seems like alot of work but it isent, just alot of typing here LOL!

Once all that is done, again, add/remove programs and enable the player. It will install it and then you can also update it from microsofts website. So whatever is missing will be replaced during the updated process! KAAAHBOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!

YES This really works.
Windows Player was bugging me for over a year!

Thanks ideaone for sharing this great cure.