Windows Media Player doesn't work properly in Windows 8.1

Rodion15 · May 15, 2014

When I open Windows Media Player, it opens but you can't see the movies, you can play music and a list of songs etc appears on the left panel, but there's no way to see movies.

Is there any way to reinstall or fix it without having to perform a traumatic refresh or reset?

ss202sl · May 15, 2014

Windows 8.1 doesn't include DVD playback. You can go here and buy the playback packagg:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/feature-packs

or get some other software. There are several free options. I use VLC

fretnutt · Dec 15, 2014

VlC doesn't even open an dvd rw

James 78 · Feb 18, 2015

I have Win 8.1 64 bit and have used Windows Media Player for many months. Suddenly it wouldn't work. I can only presume it was because of some update I had downloaded, but which one?? Trouble is I don't know when it stopped as I didn't use it all the time. It may have been weeks or a month or two between watching a movie. I tried restore to no avail. Tried various things on the net until I ran across this idea. None of the Windows repair routines worked and I tried then many times.
I found that the Media Player I was using was one of two, Windows had installed on my computer. Both the 32bit and 64 bit. The 32 bit was in Program Files (x86) and was the one that had failed. When I clicked on the 64 bit in Programs Files, it worked, but I couldn't get the computer to refer to it.
Solution:-
I went to Program Files (x86)/Windows Media Player/wmplayer.exe/properties and changed Permissions from TrustedInstaller to Administrator then renamed it wmplayer.old. Then I copied and pasted the 64 bit wmplayer.exe from Program Files to replace it. In this case for some reason I didn't have to change permissions. Then when I clicked on an .mp4, the program rewrote itself and picked all the suitable files on my computer. If you had elected to use VLC prior to this fix in order to watch some movies, you would have to go to an .mp4 and change the default program to WMP again. If you don't know how to change permissions, there are instructions elsewhere on the net and you must do it as Administrator. Hope this helps! For DVD playing I use VLC. Works OK!

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Windows Media Player doesn't work properly in Windows 8.1

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