How to Disable the Windows Media Player for Windows XP Automatic Update Feature

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  • Published on Apr 20, 2004.
  • Last Modified on Apr 20, 2004.
  • Last Modified by Wayne Maples.
  • Rated 2.8 out of 5 based on 11 votes.
To control whether you allow the Windows Media Player Automatic Update feature, user the following Windows XP registry hack:

Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsMediaPlayer
Name: DisableAutoUpdate
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 1
The same registry hack works for Windows Media Player 7.0 and 7.1 used in NT and Windows 2000.

For older Windows with Windows Media Player 6.4, the key is HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\EnableAutoUpgrade, Type=REG_SZ, and value="No".

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