Windows 7 - Don't mess with Libraries in WMP12

Playing with my new toy lately, and noticed a bunch of what I would consider "cr@p" in WMP12. Photos? Why are they part of WMP? I guess a photo is "media", but why would anyone open them in WMP? So... I "thought" the libraries in WMP were part of WMP and not the same as Windows libraries, so I just deleted the photo library... then 2 hours later when I went to find a photo... no photos in the "Libraries".

The reason I got rid of them was I was thinking that a lot of indexing was going on in WMP linking itself to thousands of photos that I would never look at with it (I could hear the HD thinking about them). Easy to add "My Pictures" back, but about gave me a stroke thinking I'd deleted 20 megs of photos. Pretty sure I like WMP11 better!

Growing pains of a new OS, I'm afraid :/ There's an emphasis in Windows 7 on interconnectedness with other electronic devices. I'm guessing photos have been integrated with WMP to encourage users to create playlists of music, pictures, and video, and stream them to other PCs, game systems, TVs, and mobile - hence the playlist/"Play To" functionality in WMP12. In order to streamline this feature, WMP12 shares Libraries with Explorer rather than indexing them itself - as you have discovered.

Like you, I'm not super jazzed about photos in WMP... but I hope this gives you some context for the feature's existence. Also, if you really can't stand it, WMP11 can be restored in Windows 7 like this: How to Downgrade Windows Media Player 12 to WMP 11 on Windows 7

Cheers,

Walker
Windows Outreach Team