Windows 7 Yes,you CAN uninstall Windows Media Player and replace it with a player of your choice.

Andrea Borman

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Oct 10, 2010
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I have broken many rules in terms of computing and will probably continue to do so. For example on Windows computers you are not supposed to remove Internet Explorer web browser.Because if you do,Windows could stop working,but I have removed Internet Explorer and this has not effected my computer at all.

A few months ago I wrote of how I successfully managed to uninstall Internet Explorer 8 from both my Windows 7 laptops. Now I have removed Windows Media player also from my laptops both Windows 7. Windows Media player like IE cannot be uninstalled in updates or programs menu as it is not listed there. And there is no way to change this,so that it shows in the uninstall a program menu. So,the only way to remove Windows Media player is like removing Internet Explorer browser,and that is to delete the file in programs on,C/drive.

But there is one problem,because the Windows Media player program file is owned by Trusted Installer,it won't let you delete it. Unless you take ownership of the file and change it to your computer user name. Or use a tool called UNLOCKER,which unlocks and removes any kind of file.

I have got nothing against Windows Media player but I already have VLC Media Player,Gom Media player and Miro video player,which I use to download my own videos from the web and put onto my other sites. So I don't need what would be 4 video players on my Netbook. And what is the point in keeping Windows Media player when I am not using it. Windows Media player is a good player and it is very user friendly.And there are some media players that I have tried,KM player and Songbird and Quick Time,which are terrible. But Windows Media player has never given me any trouble,but it is just that I have got VLC player. Which does everything that Windows Media does but has some additional features and plays videos in wide screen and high definition.

So this is how I uninstalled Windows Media player and replaced it with VLC player as my default program. For Windows XP and Windows Vista it is Windows Media player 11 and for Windows 7 it is Windows Media player 12.

First of all you have to edit the Windows Media player file in programs which is on C/Drive so that you can delete it. If you delete the file this is another way to remove the program from you computer.So you can either take ownership of the file and change the ownership from trusted Installer to your name.Or,like I did use a tool called Unlocker which I downloaded from the Internet,to unlock the file and it will then delete the file when you restart your computer. After you have restarted your computer,the Windows Media program file will be in the recycle bin,which you just empty. And that is all there is to it. Now go to turn off Windows features and un tick Windows Media player from the box. This will turn off the program and true, although now Windows Media player is off your computer. Windows update may try to install it back on during the updates,so turning it off prevents this. Then you have to restart your computer again and some times Windows puts the Windows Media file back on your computer after you have turned it off as it updates what you have done. But if this happens,just delete the file again and now that it has been turned off Windows update will not try to install it again.

Now the good thing about Windows Media player is, that it is based on what I have read,not so tied up with Windows as Internet Explorer is. So you can now go one step further like I did and delete the Windows Media player registry keys. But do not do this if you do not know what you are doing in case you delete the wrong key as there are several programs,listed as Windows Media in the registry. But they are not the player some are network files and Windows photo viewer which you don't want to touch.

I deleted both the Internet Explorer and Windows Media player registry keys because I did not want Windows to install updates for both IE or Windows Media player back on my computer. As installing the update some times puts the program file back on and then I have had to delete it again. Which I don't want to do.

But having said that, now that I have removed both the Internet Explorer files and Windows Media player files from my computer,these programs will never work again on my computer. Not even if I download them,I just get blank files. So be warned,this method will permanently remove the program and you will not be able to install it again as Windows will not let you do it.

Now Windows media player is off of my computer and VLC player has taken over as my default player. I have a webcam so VLC plays those videos I make and save with it, and it plays all of the audo files and voice messages from Google Talk, and of course,video files. In short VLC player does all that Windows Media player used to do, when I had it, only better. VLC player is also listed and set in the default programs menu.

I chose VLC player as the replacement for Windows Media because it is most compatible with Windows. But if you do not want VLC player you can choose another media placer to replace Windows Media player instead.

I have 2 laptops both Netbooks and I have uninstalled Windows Media player from both of them. On one laptop I have got VLC player only as my replacement for Windows Media. And on the other one I have Gom Media player only instead of VLC player as Windows Media players replacement.

So if you do not want to replace Windows Media player with VLC player,you can use Gom Media player instead.Gom player like VLC is another media player that plays well with Windows and will list and set as the deault program and do all that Windows Media player did,just like VLC player does.

But if you are going to remove Windows Media player from your computer,you MUST have another player,such as VLC player or Gom player or other installed or you will not be able to play video or audio files.

So it IS possible to completely uninstall Windows Media player and replace it with anther player of your choice. And both my computers now have better media players than what they had before. It can be done. Andrea Borman.
 
Solution
On Windows 7 the updates that I get, that is Windows update do not come from Internet Explorer, they come from Windows. I know this because I no longer have Internet Explorer on my computer,because I uninstalled it by deleting the IE files and most of the registry keys.

So updates must be coming from Windows itself not IE. The answer to your other question about alternatives to VLC. Well,I think that VLC player is best for Windows as it is similar to Windows Media player and is most compatible and recognized by Windows as the default player.

But if you don't want to use it then Gom Media player is the next best choice, as Windows will also set this as the default program and Gom also plays audio as well as video files. I tested this...
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Then there was Nlite for XP and all the people that went crazy deleting things they knew didn't need then posted crying about broken installs.
Joe
 
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I agree

I don't use Internet Explorer but I don't remove it.
I just don't use it.

With the size of hard drives today there isn't enough to gain from removing a relatively small program like Internet Explorer just to save space. It's not worth the hassle of dealing with the problem that might arise because Windows can't find what it wants to update etc.

All of the Software installed on my C: drive uses only 197 gigabytes of the thousand I have available and I have around 90 programs.

I have never had problems using Google Chrome along with Internet Explorer, or Real Player and Winamp along with Media Player.

I use a lot more space on my second hard drive that only has data on it.

And I have had sites say they will only work in Internet Explorer.
I had to deal with one recently.
It simply would't work in Chrome and specified that it needed Internet Explorer.

Mike
 
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Andrea,

IE has imporved a lot compared to IE 5 to newest. Have you tried IE9 Beta version ? I dumped Firefox after using IE9. It's lite weight great add-on optimization, display etc. Chrome might be fast but not good with Java plug-ins. Flock browser using the same Firefox engine so i don't believe there is much difference. If your using Bank website I used to advice to use IE over any browsers. As for slowness if you have lot of plugin as tool bar then naturally the browsing will be slow no matter what browser you use. Again "what is the best browser" is a tough question to answers it's like debating what is the best Antivirus etc.
 
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I use Media Player to watch movies in my computer. I never go through the interface though. I don't even know how. I've never tried it. I find the movie I want to watch in Windows Explorer and click on it there. I use Winamp for music. I've tried other programs for media but always end up going back these two.

I use Firefox 99% of the time. It's not fast but speed isn't an issue to me. A couple seconds here or there is just not a big deal. I use the NoScript extension because there are so many javascript exploits out there. It has saved me from Click Jackers several times recently. I feel naked allowing the internet to throw any script it has my way.

I am no fan of Internet Explorer at all but I've never disabled it. It comes in handy once in a while.
 
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Yes,I did try IE9 but I did not like that either. As I said earlier in one of my posts Internet Explorer is a backward browser compared to a much better and far superior browser like, Mozilla Firefox,Mozilla Flock,or Google Chrome or Chromium. Have you ever tried Arora a Webkit browser for Windows? I first found Arora on Linux and now they have a version for Windows. And the Windows version works better than the Linux version.

Also may I add that Gecko engine browsers that Firefox uses, are fully compatible with every website. Webkit browsers work on most of them. Now days most Windows users do not use Internet Explorer they use Firefox as their main browser. So all sites now are compatible with Firefox.

Although I do not have Firefox installed because I have got Pale Moon browser which is an alternative to Firefox like Chromium is to Google Chrome and I have Safefox another Firefox alternative. While Firefox is Good these two browsers are even faster as Pale Moon and Safefox are made for windows only.

Firefox is so popular now there are many Firefox alternatives such as Wyzo and Comet Bird,Safefox,Pale Moon and many others. The only difference is that both Wyzo and Comet bird have a download bit torrent called Downloadhelper pre-installed but you can get this add on in Firefox and the other browsers. All of these an other alternatives are different versions of Firefox and they all look identical to one another.

And there are those people who have Linux installed instead of or along side Windows. And they do not have Internet Explorer on Linux as it is not compatible there and does not work with Wine either. So I don't thing they get any sites that say you must view in Internet Explorer. I use windows and I have never had that. What site is it that will not support another browser than Internet Explorer? I do not know of one or I have never found one. But even if there was such as site I would be very surprised if it did not support the web browsers I am using.

It has been said that there are many web browsers out there and they all work better than Internet Explorer. Well,most of them do anyway. Andrea Borman.
 
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Around 80% of co-operate companies would only allow their employees to use Internet Explorer because they can setup Group Polices. The Company that I work we are only allowed to use IE. Our Internal websites will only work with Internet Explorer. Firefox and other browsers are mostly used by home users and small business owners. Setting Group Policies IE is the best as for Firefox we need to use FrontMotion Firefox Community Edition .Compared to the number of Windows users there might be only few Linux users. As I told you before it's hard to debate which is the best browser. It's each persons personal choice. But just because few person doesn't like IE doesn't mean it's a bad browser. It's has it's own pros and cons
 
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What is really the problem here is not which browser is better but the wisdom of removing registry keys and program files for the questionable benefit
of eliminating core components of Windows.

I hope it doesn't happen but if you break Windows it's your own fault.

BTW, Andrea do you have any means of restoring Windows if that does happen?
If you do then why did you say in your threads about Linux that you didn't?
 
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Well,in an office at work if you are using some one else's computer you don't have a choice as it is not your own computer. And they most probably block social network sites like Facebook as well. It is the same for me when I go away from home and I use a computer in an Internet cafe they have Internet Explorer 6,7 or maybe 8 if you are lucky.And Internet cafes they do not update their software either. I know of a company that is still using Windows 95 with IE6.

But on your own computer you do not want to have a browser like Internet Explorer which is rubbish on your computer as well as other software that is no good.

Windows Media player 12 that was on my Windows 7 laptops was good and nothing like IE.But I just wanted to personalize my computer by having my own choice media players only on there. I don't know about Windows Media player 11 that is on Windows XP and Windows Vista as I have never used it.

But from what I have read online if you do uninstall Windows Media player it does not effect your computer and have the same risks as removing IE. As although it comes with Windows it is not tied to it the way Internet Explorer is, and you can still play videos as long as you have another media player installed. But most people uninstall Windows Media player because they want to go back to the previous version,11 or 10.

But unfortunently on Windows 7 anyway once you remove IE or Windows Media player it will not install again. And with Internet Explorer it just installs as a blank file but no web browser.

This is probably because I edited and deleted the file. Both Internet Explorer and Windows Media program files are owned by Trusted Installer and that is why Windows will not let you delete it. So because I used Unlocker to delete the file and the fact that I took ownership of the file. That is why both IE and Windows Media player will not work again on my computer. Not even IE9, if I were to download it again. I have tried it. So it seems regarding Internet Explorer I have got my wish and the IE web browser will never work again on my system.

So from now on it is another web browser it has to be as IE will not work again on my computer if I downloaded it again. Which I have already tested out, and needles to say the blank IE file got deleted by me and was disposed of in the recycle bin. So although I still have some of the IE registry keys which cannot all be deleted as well as other software I have installed which cannot be either. As the registry is my operating system, so to speak. It does not mean I still have the software on the computer. The registry is just a record of the software,that you have got on there or had on there in the past. Andrea Borman.
 
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Andrea ,

Did you make a Restore point or Created a backup for your Windows. If not I think it's best to run a Repair Install it would put all the files back in.
 
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Both my laptops,I have got 2, are Netbooks. So they do not have a CD drive to boot from a CD or back up my files unless. I buy one and plug it in to the usb socket in my laptop,where I plug the mouse in and the other end of the cable to the drive,that would work.

But my computer is working well and the issue with Aim Messenger not being able to download it,that's only one issue. Because since I deleted some of IEs registry keys the one that said IE version 8,it cannot read what IE,version was on there. But everything else I can down load and install and use. Windows Live Messenger works. So I think it is just a policy of Aol or Aim that they will not let you install their software without IE being installed. If that's true then it is just silly.

But I don't want put Internet Explorer browser back on my 2 laptops,that is why I got rid of it in the first place. I have many other web browsers on my computer, so I do not need IE.I am not sorry that I removed Internet Explorer, and there is nothing about it that I miss. And removing IE has not damaged my operating system.Andrea Borman
 
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Thank you very much for showing an interest in my post. But even though I have broken an unwritten rule in removing Internet Explorer web browser and Windows Media player which you should not relay do because there may be a risk of damaging Windows or deleting some thing else by mistake. My computer is working fine. Windows is the best operating system and very user friendly ,the only thing I don't like is Internet Explorer,which I have got rid of. Maybe some day all future versions of Windows will be made without Internet Explorer. That would be great. I seem to get on a lot better with Windows than with Linux. Andrea Borman.
 
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Andrea - been reading all the post here. In the past I just disabled IE8 through the Windows Features section of Programs and Features in Control Panel. As others stated, it helps to still have IE8 for Windows Updates. I hope everything else get worked out alright!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Does anyone know of another substitute for Windows Media Player for playing those standard and obscure video files? I DO NOT LIKE VLC player because it takes over the entire computer and the icon is ugly and looks like a Texas Longhorn dunce cap! LOL!

I have never used Gom player so I might try it out. However, if anyone has a suggestion, please feel free to post it. I use AIMP2 for all my audio since it basically kicks every other audio player's tushy. RealPlayer is another not so great player because of it's spyware and also poor audio playback.

Thanks in Advance!
~Nibs
 
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On Windows 7 the updates that I get, that is Windows update do not come from Internet Explorer, they come from Windows. I know this because I no longer have Internet Explorer on my computer,because I uninstalled it by deleting the IE files and most of the registry keys.

So updates must be coming from Windows itself not IE. The answer to your other question about alternatives to VLC. Well,I think that VLC player is best for Windows as it is similar to Windows Media player and is most compatible and recognized by Windows as the default player.

But if you don't want to use it then Gom Media player is the next best choice, as Windows will also set this as the default program and Gom also plays audio as well as video files. I tested this out on my second laptop after I removed Windows Media player. My second laptop then only had Gom play as the only media player and it worked. Gom took over as the default program and played all of the video and audio files.

But I have now have both VLC and Gom player on both my laptops as I like them both and each have additional functions. But yes,you can use Gom player as your only media player if you do not want VLC player.

And yes,I tried Media Player classic and it did not work at all. The problem is that Media Player classic only installs as a zip file and so videos did not play in it. And I find that Windows does not list web browsers or programs in the default programs menu if they have been installed as zip files. For example take Chromium web browser. If you install it as a zip file installation you cannot uninstall it in the programs menu as it is not listed there. And it does not appear in default program list. So to uninstall it you have to just delete the desktop icon and program file.This is all right but I prefer to install programs that can be installed normally with Windows installer.

Chromium browser can also be installed by normal download-Windows installer. As can other programs like The World browser for example,which you can install by zip file or as normal download like Chromium. But you cannot with Media Player classic as it only comes as a zip file installation. And also it did not work on my computer. I think the reason was because it was a zip file installation. Andrea Borman.
 
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Solution
You will not be able to use sites that manipulate ActiveX without Internet Explorer. This is because ActiveX is proprietary to Internet Explorer, much like Adobe Flash is licensed out. Sites that still manipulate ActiveX controls include support.dell.com, and a number of important Microsoft-based sites. Without the ability to use these controls, you may have problems displaying or sending information from your browser. ActiveX has been known to have some security problems, and this is why it will have security layered filtering in Internet Explorer 9.

Also, stating that your updates are not received by Internet Explorer, but through Windows itself, and therefore, you do not need Internet Explorer to perform updates is a non-sequitur. It is very possible you will need Internet Explorer, somewhere, physically on the system, in order to perform future updates. This was certainly the case when Internet Explorer was included in Windows XP Service Pack 3. Obviously, Windows Updates that would effect deleted files related to Internet Explorer, even if those updates were not directly to correct security problems with Internet Explorer, might fail immediately.
 
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