What are wmpnscfg.exe and wmpnetwk.exe and
Why are they running?
So you’ve been going through Task Manager trying to figure out why so many services are running
when you notice there’s two items for Windows Media Player in the list… but you don’t even use Media Player. What’s up with that?
It’s not like the processes take a lot of memory… I just get irritated when there’s a process
that restarts for no good reason. You disable it, and then somehow it’s back.
Annoying!
What Is This Service Anyway?
Windows Media Player 11 can share media between different computers on the same network,
and can even share media with the XBox 360 as well. For this to work, there’s a network sharing
service that shares the library even if Media Player isn’t open. It’s really a great system if you use it.
Both of these processes are part of the Windows Media Player Sharing system, so if you use
those features you should not disable it.
Disabling Media Sharing in Media Player
The best way to remove these services is to just use the configuration panel… that way they
don’t come back the next time Media Player gets opened, accidentally or
otherwise.
Open up Windows Media Player, and then click on the little arrow under “Library” and choose
the “Media Sharing” option from the menu.
If you are using a custom theme, or otherwise can’t get to that menu, you can also open the
Options panel, choose the Library tab, and then click on “Configure Sharing”
Either one of the above will bring you to the Media Sharing dialog. Uncheck both of the boxes
that you see here.
Note: If they are unchecked, you should check them, click apply, and then uncheck them and
click OK… basically to reset the settings.
Once you hit the OK button, you’ll be prompted with an extremely important dialog… do you want
to turn sharing off for everybody? Yes!
This will actually turn off the service, and remove the startup entry for wmpnscfg.exe.
(Note that you’ll have to kill that process manually the first time, or log off and back on)
At this point you should be able to use your computer without either of those two processes running.
If you continue to have problems getting rid of them, you can read down further for more
troubleshooting steps.
Disabling Media Player Network Sharing Service in Services
You shouldn’t actually need to do this part, as using the configuration instructions above should
work… but if you are having problems getting rid of it, here’s where you
need to go.
Open up Services from Control Panel, or type services.msc into the start menu search/run box.
Find the service in the list:
Open it up by double-clicking on it, and then change the service to Disabled.
One note here… If you try to re-enable Media Sharing in Media Player, it will ignore the fact that it’s disabled. This is why you need to make the configuration change there
as well.
Alternative Methods using Regedit
If you are still having issues, you can do some further checking to make sure that the two services
won’t be re-enabled again. Open up regedit.exe through the start menu search or run box,
and then browse down to the following key:
There should be a DWORD value on the right-hand side named DisableDiscovery which you
can set to a value of 2 (setting it to 1 also worked for me). Just make sure that it’s not
set to 0.
To make sure that the wmpnscfg.exe is turned off, you can browse down to the following key
in the registry:
This is where Windows turns that application on… if there’s an item for it in this list, then
delete it.
when you notice there’s two items for Windows Media Player in the list… but you don’t even use Media Player. What’s up with that?
It’s not like the processes take a lot of memory… I just get irritated when there’s a process
that restarts for no good reason. You disable it, and then somehow it’s back.
Annoying!
What Is This Service Anyway?
Windows Media Player 11 can share media between different computers on the same network,
and can even share media with the XBox 360 as well. For this to work, there’s a network sharing
service that shares the library even if Media Player isn’t open. It’s really a great system if you use it.
Both of these processes are part of the Windows Media Player Sharing system, so if you use
those features you should not disable it.
Disabling Media Sharing in Media Player
The best way to remove these services is to just use the configuration panel… that way they
don’t come back the next time Media Player gets opened, accidentally or
otherwise.
Open up Windows Media Player, and then click on the little arrow under “Library” and choose
the “Media Sharing” option from the menu.
If you are using a custom theme, or otherwise can’t get to that menu, you can also open the
Options panel, choose the Library tab, and then click on “Configure Sharing”
Either one of the above will bring you to the Media Sharing dialog. Uncheck both of the boxes
that you see here.
Note: If they are unchecked, you should check them, click apply, and then uncheck them and
click OK… basically to reset the settings.
Once you hit the OK button, you’ll be prompted with an extremely important dialog… do you want
to turn sharing off for everybody? Yes!
This will actually turn off the service, and remove the startup entry for wmpnscfg.exe.
(Note that you’ll have to kill that process manually the first time, or log off and back on)
At this point you should be able to use your computer without either of those two processes running.
If you continue to have problems getting rid of them, you can read down further for more
troubleshooting steps.
Disabling Media Player Network Sharing Service in Services
You shouldn’t actually need to do this part, as using the configuration instructions above should
work… but if you are having problems getting rid of it, here’s where you
need to go.
Open up Services from Control Panel, or type services.msc into the start menu search/run box.
Find the service in the list:
Open it up by double-clicking on it, and then change the service to Disabled.
One note here… If you try to re-enable Media Sharing in Media Player, it will ignore the fact that it’s disabled. This is why you need to make the configuration change there
as well.
Alternative Methods using Regedit
If you are still having issues, you can do some further checking to make sure that the two services
won’t be re-enabled again. Open up regedit.exe through the start menu search or run box,
and then browse down to the following key:
Registry:HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Preferences\HME
There should be a DWORD value on the right-hand side named DisableDiscovery which you
can set to a value of 2 (setting it to 1 also worked for me). Just make sure that it’s not
set to 0.
To make sure that the wmpnscfg.exe is turned off, you can browse down to the following key
in the registry:
Registry:HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
This is where Windows turns that application on… if there’s an item for it in this list, then
delete it.
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