Windows Media Player has been deployed with all installations of the Microsoft produced Windows Operating System for the past decade. The current versions of the application mix in social media sharing applications along with the ability to watch movies and listen to music. Although Microsoft has expanded the “friendliness” of Windows Media Player with non-proprietary multi-media file formats in recent versions, many users will have the desire or need to remove the player from their computer. Unfortunately, it is not a straight forward task to remove the player like it is other applications on the Windows platform.

Steps to Uninstall Windows Media Player

Step 1 – Open the computer's Control Panel by selecting the “Start” menu followed by “Settings” and the “Control Panel” menu option.

Step 2 – Select the “Add / Remove Program” menu selection listed under the Control Panel options.

Step 3 – View the listing of programs installed on the computer.

Step 4 – Select the check box located at the top of the screen that states “Show Updates”.How to Uninstall Windows Media Player

Step 5 – Scroll down until you see “Windows XP – Software Updates.” Note that this will read slightly different if you are using a different version of MS Windows.

Step 6 – Select “Remove” under any entries that have “Windows Media Player” listed in the application name.

Step 7 – Restart Your Computer.

Step 8 – Choose the “Start” and “Run” menu options followed by entering “REGEDIT” followed by the “Enter” key at the DOS prompt.

Step 9 – Select the “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE” registry entry followed by selecting the “SOFTWARE” entry.

Step 10 – Select “Microsoft” and “Windows” options on the registry editor followed by choosing “Current Version.”

Step 11 – Right click on the “Uninstallwmpxx” entry where “xx” is the version of Windows Media Player installed on your computer to remove the associated registry key.

Step 12 – Exit the registry editor by selecting the “X” in the upper, right-hand corner of the application and restart your computer again to complete the Windows Media Player removal.