Reset Windows Media Player 12 To Default Settings


I have been having a lot of troubles with my Windows Media Player on Windows 7 but I found this cool trick that allows you to reset WMP12 back to it’s default settings. This might be handy if you are encountering any issues of your own.

I have thrown to together a bit of a screen cast to demonstrate the process, it only takes about 30 seconds! Take a look below. (Change quality settings to at least 720p and full screen for better readability).
Simply to go Start > Run (or hold down the Windows Key and press R) and type in the following:

msdt.exe -id WindowsMediaPlayerConfigurationDiagnostic

Press enter and follow the prompts to reset WMP.

I hope this helps someone!


43 thoughts on “Reset Windows Media Player 12 To Default Settings”

  1. Thanks!! I’ve been looking for weeks (on and off)for a way to reset the defaults. This was it. I don’t know why they don’t make it easier to find and or figure out. ……just one single “reset defaults” button
    couldn’t be that hard to come up with….

  2. I had this same problem and googled “windows media player default settings” and found this page with the solution. I did it and all is well. I was not able to burn cd’s that would work, and at first thought I had a bad batch of cd’s but then remembered I had changed some of the rip settings and it made me wonder if I had ‘screwed’ something up. I still don’t know if I was responsible for it not working, but regardless, now all is fine. Thank you very much for the fix solution.

  3. Another way is to open wmp, press Alt H, go to the help screen and then type in “media player settings troubleshooter”. It will then give you the link for the troubleshooter. The first thing the troubleshooter will do is ask if you would like to restore the wmp to it’s default settings.

  4. Thanks a lot guys for this information..!

    The command is a pain to remember however..
    Try this:
    -Open WMP 12
    -Press F1
    -Type “troubleshooter” on the search bar and enter
    -Click the number 19 search result

    ^_^

  5. Great fix! I made some changes to my WMP. At first everything worked properly, but after restarting the application, there was no audio. Your little “hint” get it working again. Point learned? Quit messing with stuff when you don’t know what you did.

  7. How to get windows media player back to defaults if that doesn’t work
    Go to UserName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Media\12.O and delete all that is in that folder
    Also Go to UserName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Media Player and delete all that is in that folder

  9. Thanks, I found this helpful. I like short and effective instructions. Copy. Start, run, paste, next. Done. Well done sir.

  10. thanks thanks a lot you saved me i have spent so much time trying to solve this problem and the solution was so easy thanks kisses

  16. “Another way is to open wmp, press Alt H, go to the help screen and then type in “media player settings troubleshooter”. It will then give you the link for the troubleshooter. The first thing the troubleshooter will do is ask if you would like to restore the wmp to it’s default settings.”

    Perfect advice. My indexes were all messed up from moving videos around. This reset them. Thanks a million!!!

  17. I can’t believe how long it has taken to find this solution. Thank you! You deserve some kind of medal for this fix.

  18. Unfortunately none of the suggestions worked for me :(….even running the command line fix says it finds a problem, yet it does not fix it…any additional suggestions?

  21. Didn’t help.

    Windows Media Player still has all its original content, and I still can’t delete some files.

  23. Thanks man for this wonderful fix…. there is nothing in this world which cannot be fixed while speaking abt computers… but some need extensive search, 1 or 2 searches nd i found ur fix for resetting the WMP12 settings… ty very much. was very easy,

    Regards
    angel minz

  24. Excellent!!
    I had the same problem and with the default configuration everything worked again.
    Thank you!

  26. In the event that your corporate policy prevents the running of this troubleshooter, you can also drop to a command line and navigate to the folder wmplayer is in and type wmplayer.exe /resetall.
    The trouble shooter you mention was unable to start for me because of global policy object prevented it executing.

  27. Been having problems playing AVI files, tried this and also tried installing a codec pack, i have vlc player and realplayer and still cant play any films, anybody help?

  29. thanks.I was using media player classic and k-lite codecs and set exerything to also be used for windows media player.When I got rid of media player classic and k-lite codecs windows media player still had the changed settings and was messing up.This fix brought back windows media player to running fine again.You are the greatest.

  30. I found an easy way to reset WMP 12.
    1. Open WMP
    2. If you don’t see the menu bar [File, View, Play, Tools, Help] click on Organize>Layout>Show Menu Bar
    3. In the Menu bar click Tools>Avdanced>Restore Media Library.
    4. Pop up will say “Continuing will empty your media library and close the WMP. Do you wish to continue?
    5. Click Yes and your done!

  32. Excellent ! thanks a lot mate that solved my problem which was “Windows Media Player Has Stopped Working” appearing 2 seconds after opening the player

  34. I’ll immediately grasp your rss feed as I can not in finding your
    email subscription hyperlink or e-newsletter service. Do you’ve any?
    Please permit me recognize so that I may just subscribe.
    Thanks.

  36. Yes, this command solved my problem.
    A specific user could not stream a radio and after that command and the wizard, the problem disapeared.

  37. my WMP 12 is doing the same thing and have tried all the fixes and it still continues to shut down.
    I wanted to “Organize>Layout>Show Menu Bar”, but under Organize it does not give that option!!
    Any other ideas?Thanks

  38. Thanks! I had a problem when I added additional USB HDD’s and moved the originals to different locations on the hub and remapped drive letters. What happened was I tried to copy files from one of the original USB drives to a new one and kept getting “Could Not Find This Item” even though it was there. I remembered I mapped folders to WMP and because the drive letters changed, it was causing that problem — this fix fixed it, thanks!

  42. Will this fix missing mp3 and mp4 video preview thumbnail images in Windows 7 Ultimate? I have tried a lot of different fixes thinking the problem was in Windows Media Player that were suggestions from different forums. Ran a lot of command line programs to check out the operating system and discs. Nothing worked. I even ran Tweaking Windows in safe mode. I used to transfer my mp4 files from my LG 5 phone with no problem to my Dell XPS L502X and be able to see a preview image in Windows Explorer. And they would play perfectly if I clicked on the image. WMP would open it no problem. Now WMP still plays them but there is no preview image only a Blue Music Note and a Piece of Film where the preview image should be. For no apparent reason I can think of my laptop quit displaying preview images for those video file types. It shows them for other video file types though. I see this has been a problem that has been cropping up for several years for other floks as well but with no actual “This Works Type Solutions”. Only a lot of different ideas of what to try to fix it with that don’t really fix it. Grrrrrr Frustrating.

  43. Well to answer my own question it doesn’t work to restore video thumbnail preview images. I tried all the suggestions and even did the one James posted December 13, 2011 at 8:39 am in Safe Mode.

    So if anyone has a different solution please post it.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.