Member Avatar for odiegh

First this is not a vista issue it's part of media player 11. I'm running xp2 and I have tried everything to remove this from starting up randomly. I disabled in file sharing in media player but it continues to comes up. ANyone found a way to disable this or do I need to go back to media player 10?

  • 2 Contributors
  • 2 Replies
  • 125 Views
  • 1 Week Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by jbennet

Dani AI

Generated

This is the Windows Media Player network-sharing component (wmpnetwk.exe / Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service). It’s not just “finding track names” — it indexes the WMP library and handles UPnP/DLNA device discovery and media serving. Because it is a service, turning off the in-player “file sharing” UI sometimes doesn’t stop the service from being started by network events or other software.

A reliable stop is to disable the service itself:

  • Start -> Run -> services.msc
  • Find “Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service” (service name WMPNetworkSvc)
  • Right-click -> Stop, then Properties -> Startup type -> Disabled

Executable path (for reference): %ProgramFiles%\Windows Media Player\wmpnetwk.exe

If you prefer a registry method (backup first), set the service Start value to Disabled:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WMPNetworkSvc
Start = 4    ; 4 = Disabled

If the service still restarts: check Event Viewer (eventvwr.msc) for the trigger, scan for UPnP/streaming devices on the LAN, and review scheduled tasks or third-party sync/phone software that may call the service. On XP Pro the setting can also be enforced via gpedit.msc under Computer Configuration -> Windows Settings -> Security Settings -> System Services.

Caveats: disabling this service stops network streaming and device discovery but does not affect local playback of files. is right that it helps provide metadata to other devices; , since you already tried the in-player disable, stopping the service as above is the usual fix short of uninstalling WMP11 and rolling back to 10.

Recommended Answers

All 2 Replies

Member Avatar for odiegh

First this is not a vista issue it's part of media player 11. I'm running xp2 and I have tried everything to remove this from starting up randomly. I disabled in file sharing in media player but it continues to comes up. ANyone found a way to disable this or do I need to go back to media player 10?

I have found no resolution for this other then uninstalling MP 11 and rolling back to 10. If anyone else has found something please let me knowl

Member Avatar for jbennet

i think wmpntwrk is the thing that it uses to find out the names of tracks

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.