How to re-download/re-installWMP 12? It's NOT in Optional Features!

Thenin said:

...I uninstalled WMP 12 and was happy. But now I'm trying to install a new application called PlayOn Desktop, but it always fails because I don't have WMP installed...

...I've tried using Programs and Features in Control Panel and then Optional Features in Settings, but there are absolutely no entries relating to "Media Features" or any kind of media player....

...Please, please do not suggest a repair install of Windows 10! I've spent MONTHS setting up my system exactly the way I want it, yet even a repair install will massively screw me over!! I'd far rather kill myself than re-install Windows 10!

Presumably you have done a lot more than just tweaking a few settings. My guess is some serious registry mods, reading between the lines in the above. It would appear you did a lot more to wipe WMP from the face of the PC than just disable it in Windows Features, as that would have been reversible. Some deep registry hacks, perhaps? Hacks that may also have had the side-effect of removing any mention of 'Media Features' from the list of optional features? Knowing how you physically uninstalled (rather than just disabled) WMP would give some clues as how (or even if) this can be repaired.

There are still a few things you haven't said you've tried yet. Option Three in the tutorial uses Powershell commands, for example.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/...a.html#option3

Another way is to use DISM in an elevated command prompt.

Dism /online /Enable-Feature /FeatureName:WindowsMediaPlayer /All

see: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/win...res-using-dism


It's a pity you won't contemplate a repair install. That would be the most obvious fix to apply because WMP 12 is built in to the Windows system and can only be installed by Windows Setup. Have you actually had any experience of doing a repair install? Or are you just assuming it will wreck all your tweaking? I have done it (several times) and found the system to be virtually unchanged (but working properly) afterwards. But then my system is probably closer to 'baseline' Windows than yours.

Having spent so much time customizing the system I would be very surprised if you do not also make regular system image backups. What do you use? Macrium? If so, why not take a recent system image and run it as a virtual machine using Macrium viBoot. You say you have Pro, so you have Hyper-V available (unless you've removed that too).

In a VM you could test a repair install to see if it's as bad as you fear. If it's not so bad after all you could do it on the real system. If it's all you feared (then more) at least you'd (with luck) have a working WMP. Then you could compare the registry of the two system and see which keys you need to add/modify to make WMP work on the real system.

Thanks enormously for your helpfully detailed reply, Bree!

First, I finally remembered why the Manage optional features -> Add a Feature -> Windows Media Player procedure fails to show up: As always, I used Windows Toolkit to remove unwanted Windows features, as I've been doing since XP. The main benefit of Win Toolkit is that you can gather and install every single Windows update since the latest release of Windows which saves several hours compared to needing to run Windows Update to download and install every patch after the installation!

Now, let me intersperse my replies with your comments...

Bree said:

Presumably you have done a lot more than just tweaking a few settings. My guess is some serious registry mods, reading between the lines in the above....

Not as extensive as you may imagine -- actually I changed relatively little in the Registry myself directly, though I ran 2-3 system tweakers. But the majority of the changes were made by using various applications wherein I changed many settings, including various default paths and the like. Those that use .ini files would be fine, but that is used less and less often these days.

The most awful thing is that even a so-called "Repair" install will either fail to install because of those changes, or will set too many of them back to their defaults, and I cannot begin to remember all the changes made. Long back when Microsoft was soliciting user suggestions for Windows 10 capabilities, I vehemently recommended that Windows 10 provide a TRUE Repair Install feature, which hasn't been part of Windows since XP (XP was absolutely perfect in this regard: It would not mess with anything other than what you explicitly told it to do, and it would not blindly force the core OS files back to a different version and thereby force you to install many, many Windows updates). Sadly, only about 7 people voted for this mind-bogglingly great and useful feature (compared to the millions who only wanted it to be free, no matter how horrible the OS turned out to be).

The other reason that so-called repair installs fail nearly always for me is that if some Windows Update failed to install properly once upon a time, it will simply fail to install Windows at all, often demanding that every single Update be successfully installed and pretty much that everything everywhere be exactly as Microsoft wants it before it will even perform a repair install without failing.

Bree said:

Having spent so much time customizing the system I would be very surprised if you do not also make regular system image backups. What do you use?

I don't bother with incremental backups because it always backs up files I either don't give a damn about or those I have dozens of plenty good enough (if very slightly altered) copies backed up elsewhere already. So I always perform weekly Full OS Partition clones, usually with Acronis Disk Director 12 (at least in the past), or more recently with Disk Genius bootable USB, or with EaseUS ToDo backup bootable USB.

For example, I have 6 or so full Win 10 partition clones of different ages on hard disk, so that it's trivial to restore an entire working OS partition very quickly.

Your suggestions regarding trying a Repair Install on a virtual system copy is very wise, thanks. However, I've never worked with VMWare or other virtual systems, and I have paid so very much for Professional backup / cloning applications (DiskGenius is the finest and most powerful backup / clone / data recovery application I've ever encountered -- it's truly amazing! But I have 5 computers and 5 seats of DiskGenius nearly bankrupted me, so I won't be purchasing Macrium Pro -- although I've heard very high praise for it.

Anyway, instead of a virtualized copy, when I get the chance I'll simply make a complete hard disk clone and try a repair install on that. That way it won't matter if the install fails or messes up my system, just as would be the case if done virtually.

Well, it's off to bed with me. Thanks for your great post and helpful discussion!

Thenin said:

Thanks enormously for your helpfully detailed reply, Bree!

Glad I've inspired you to try a few alternative approaches - the 'hard disk clone' idea would be good alternative to my VM suggestion.

I'd also look at the Powershell and DISM methods of enabling WMP, they might still work even though you can't see it in the Settings or Windows Features UI.

Winaero's take: (several approaches)
How to Restore Windows Media Player in Windows 10