Can't Turn windows media player back on!?!

[Trcx]

About a week ago I went into programs and features clicked turn windows features on and off and disabled all media features rebooted and they were gone. Awsome. Today I deiced to turn them back on but I can't i get an error message saying "An error has occurred. Not all of the features were successfully changed" then I am asked to restart, I do, I see windows changing features at shutdown/reboot but none of the media features are there. I tried running sfc /scannow and it found nothing. I also tried turning the features on and off in safe mode, but I got the same error message. Does anyone have a solution?

Thank you in advance,
Trcx

 

[gregrocker]

You may need to run a http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html?ltr=R

 

[Trcx]

Can you think of anything else it's not a big deal if I can't use wmp. I just clean installed my system 2 weeks ago, and almost have all my registry edit back in place.

Thanks for your quick response

 

[Maguscreed]

I would also have a look at programs and features, on the side where it says turn features off and on. I would make sure there isn't anything related to media that's not active there.
One of the boxes should be media features.
I would make sure everything there is currently active, if not checking it then hitting okay should solve the problem.

You may have just gone too far with disabling stuff and actually wound up with something important removed...
you can also uninstall/reinstall media player itself from there, which could also solve the problem.

 

[gregrocker]

What kind of registry edits are you doing? This could be your problem.

Win7 is too lean an OS to stand much tweaking. It will almost always come back to bite you.

Best to clean reinstall again and then use only normal System settings: http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/125874-re-install-windows-7-a.html#post1086729

 

[Trcx]

@maguscreed that's what i tried, but after I check the box and click ok I get a dialog box with a green progress bar sitting there for a while. Then I get the error message and once i dismiss that I am prompted to reboot. Once I reboot, the check boxes are unchecked again.

@gregrocker the registry edits are very minor changing of the context menu that and a nodrives explorer policy. I hate having options (in the context menu) that I don't use and there is a backup hd that I don't want to see in explorer.


Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[Trcx]

Here is something interesting I tried turning windows media player back on, it errored and prompted me to reboot. I did not reboot. And then I happened to close the DVD drive with a DVD in it and windows media Player piped up asking me to set it up (first run). I did and it worked perfectly. I then went back into the features dialog and saw that the media componated were not selected, (despite using the componates). Another interesting note is that the dialog had only about half of the options that it had previously. Something strange seems to he going on. A little goggling brought up that the exact same error happen in vista after installing a windows update. Do you think this could be something similar?

Trcx

 

[Maguscreed]

It is possible. I personally quit using media player in favor of vlc a long time ago myself. It doesn't need codecs or anything extra and supports all kinds of crazy features media player doesn't even have.
VideoLAN - VLC media player, Open Source video framework for every OS!

 

[Sardonicus]

Have you checked the default programs?
Start > Default Programs.

 

[Trcx]

The default programs show that windows media player is enabled. The problem isn't limited to media player like I thought, but I can't change ANY windows features. I can't think of what else to check. Any ideas?

 

[gregrocker]

Run http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html

If this doesn't help, then run a http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html?ltr=R as a last resort before clean reinstalling using the tips I posted earlier.

 

[James Colbert]

Assuming that you have restore points pre-dating the Feature changes (and that SR would impact those changes), have you tried a System Restore?

James

 

[unifex]

I would try to pop in a Windows DVD and try the "repair my computer" option.

I'm thinking you have disabled some service that is necessary for turning windows features on and off or simply deleted some files accidentally - or moved them, or deleted the registry reference to them - and Windows does not know where to get those features.

 

[Trcx]

In reverse order

I'll try to boot off of my install DVD and see if that can fix it. But first ill try turnin some services back on. It never occured to me that could be the issue it tweaked the services using black vipers guide. The only thing is after I turn the features back on and before I reboot the media features work perfectly. Hmm...

System restore was one Of the first things I tried and it didn't fix it.

Already tried the sfc but it didn't find anything. But I'll run it again.

If none of these options work I'll try a repair install. But first could you just answer a few questions. Will I have to reinstall my programs? I think that I shouldn't have to, but I just want to be sure. I assume it will erase all of my. Context menu registry tweaks. And the final question the tutorial states that I cannot boot of of the install DVD to do this I must run it from inside of windows. Why?

I'll try these later tonight and will report back. Thank for all of the wonderful advice! It is much appreciated!

Trcx

 

[gregrocker]

If you read the Repair Install tutorial linked it explains how the in-place Upgrade works. It will not change settings but may claw back ones which are damaging to the OS when it reinstalls it.

As Win7 beta testers found out over a year's time, all of the tweaks which we relied upon to make XP and early Vista run smoothly are not needed at all in Win7 and in fact will almost always come back to bite you. It is already a perfectly balanced and optimized OS.

If any performance is lacking after getting a perfect install, then only hardware upgrades are called for.

Win7 learned from and has become the Black Viper.

 

[TheAlice]

Trcx I love you.
I put a DVD in, it didn't load but media player finally opened, I switched to the Dr Who I downloaded from Iplayer and it's working!
So I suppose uni having the slowest internet in the galaxy has at least forced me to sort this out.