Media Player won't stream

I'm using Win 7 HP 64 bit, Media Player 12.

I just connected a Panasonic Viera smart TV and I wanted to stream video, pictures and music to it from my laptop. When I go into Media Player there is no Stream button, and if I go to Control Panel /Choose Homegroup and Sharing Options, the Share Media with Devices box is greyed out so I cannot select it.

Media Player sees the Viera TV but not the other way round.

Any ideas please< I've spent all day on this!. Done sfc /scannow OK, enabled some services that were disabled but I cannot pin it down.

Thanks.

Many thanks for the prompt response Kari. Sadly, I wasn't able to get very far at all.

I don't get the page with Advanced Sharing options so I don't get Media Streamimg options. But if I go to Choose Homegroup and Sharing options the Share media with devices is greyed out and nothing I do will make it available.

If I go to Advanced Sharing Settings Media Streaming, I'm told that media streaming is off and when I choose Media and streaming options I'm told Media Streaming is not turned on and that Media Streaming is disabled by Group Policy defined by your administrator. It then tells me to contact my administrator for policy details. I am the sole user of this system and am the administrator! I cannot even leave the Homegroup and rejoin to see if that would cure the problem.

I also have another spare laptop which I hardly ever use but I turned it on and Media Player has the Stream button showing and Media Streaming is already selected, not greyed out.

Does the Stream button in Media Player 'come to life' as a result of another setting elsewhere?

I appreciate your help. thanks.

Fantastic!!

I couldn't use the Through the Local Group Policy Editor as I have Home Premium but the reg file did the trick beautifully.

Thank you so much Kari, much appreciated!