Disable Windows Media Player Updates

A lot of computer programs keep themselves updates automatically. Since most PC’s have always-on internet connections, some programs regularly check for updates or add-ons. Very convenient if you want to make sure you have the latest version and all program patches. What is not so nice is that it takes up bandwidth, which can slow down your internet browsing or downloads.

Windows Media Player version 11 is a program that also checks in the background. Looking for program updates, new drivers, new versions of media formats on a regular interval.

If you prefer to check for updates manually and do not like applications to check for updates automatically, you can turn off the Windows Media Player automatic update checking. A registry change can accomplish this:

1. Start the Registry Editor.From the Windows Start menu, select Run. In the Run box, type regedit and click OK.
2. In the Registry Editor, locate the following key:
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\Policies\Microsoft
3. In the Edit menu, select New and then Key.
4. Type WindowsMediaPlayer as the name for the new key, and press Enter.
5. With the key selected, open the Edit menu, click New and then select DWORD Value.
6. Type DisableAutoUpdate as the name for the new DWORD Value and press Enter.
7. Now right-click the new DisableAutoUpdate, and select Modify in the popup menu.
8. Enter the value 1 as the Value data and click OK.
9. Close the Registry Editor. Select Exit from the File menu.
10. Finally reboot your computer for the changes to take effect.

This tip works for both Windows XP and Windows Vista. After restarting your PC the automatic update checking by Windows Media Player is updated. Make sure you do manually check for program updates occasionally after this!

There are many more programs that check for updates automatically. As said, this can be convenient, but you do not need all updates all the time anyway. So if you are not on an internet connection with unlimited bandwidth and speed, check the application settings and consider switching the update checking to manual.