hi guys i have also had all of the issues in the above posts - i have found a solution to this but there is a catch
it means completely doing away with wmp12 & downgrading to wmp 11.
first you need to download the windows media player 11 for windows 7 installer
Download Windows Media Player 11 for Windows 7 (Replace WMP 12)
(all instructions are in the zip)
second you will need to take control of various windows media player & some other windows files - this can be done in two ways firstly taking control in the usual laborious way (that sometimes wont even let you get control at all) or secondly by downloading this registry entry
Easy way to take ownership of system files in Vista & Windows 7 - WinMatrix
(you will have to register to be able to download the reg files first - but its free)
when this registry entry is entered you can take control of whatever file/folder you need with a simple right click context menu option - just right click on file/folder & use the take ownership option (re-boot first after installing reg key for this option to appear in context menu)
there are also two other problems with wmp 12 you may have noticed or not
firstly i found that it not only keeps re-building/ updating its databases on start up, i found that also whenever i launched an internet explorer ( i use firefox but tried them all - ie google chrome etc all with the same issue regardless) it also would start this updating dartabases process sometimes using 50 - 70 % of the processor usage & would not let it go until i closed my internet explorer.
secondly wmp 12 seems to always have its burn list in a ready state (even if you are not in the burn tab)
so when i used third party burning software the burn would sometimes hang for a few minutes & sometimes even crash the whole system as wmp 12 has loaded the blank media & is holding it so when the other app tries to get hold of it to do the burn it has to fight off wmp12 to get a hold of it .
but now i have got wmp 11 on here all the problems above have completely dissappeard (i almost went back to vista before i found out about this downgrade fix - as you cant just install wmp11 from a package on 7 as it wont let you put an older version on without the wmp11 for Windows 7 installer & firstly taking control of the files - there is also a registry entry you must first delete before re-booting but instructions for this are in the wmp11 for windows 7 zip) - i have been using media player 11 on 7 for a few weeks now with no issues , every function works without a flaw - so for anyone who does not mind going back to wmp11 this is the fix for all problems -
hope this helps (sorry for the long post as i was just trying to cover all the issues i had in case someone else had the same problems & its also my first post so im bit new to all of this, im just remembering how frustrated i was with this & want to save someone else the hassles)