# Windows Media Player has me held hostage! Please send help!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-media-player-has-me-held-hostage-please-send-help/211705
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [November 6, 2003, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-media-player-has-me-held-hostage-please-send-help/211705 "2003-11-06T15:42:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@mmm.forbidden\_doughnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mmm.forbidden_doughnut)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2003, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-media-player-has-me-held-hostage-please-send-help/211705/21 "2003-11-07T14:55:01Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Daizy \*
> \*\*Easy way to find out?! 🙂 \*\*
Yes, but it will have to wait until I get home. It didn’t even occur to me last night.
---
### Author:  [@Xerxes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xerxes)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2003, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-media-player-has-me-held-hostage-please-send-help/211705/22 "2003-11-07T15:04:26Z")
If it’s been going a while (and thus you don’t want to restore the registry as per **Number’s** excellent suggestion) then…
Can you run regedit (from Start/Run)? If so, use the find facility to locate all instances of the name of the media player executable (on my system it’s wmplayer.exe, but check on yours). See if any look suspicious…
---
### Author:  [@mmm.forbidden\_doughnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mmm.forbidden_doughnut)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2003, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-media-player-has-me-held-hostage-please-send-help/211705/23 "2003-11-07T15:13:26Z")
What would something “suspicious” look like?
---
### Author:  [@dylan\_73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dylan_73)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2003, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-media-player-has-me-held-hostage-please-send-help/211705/24 "2003-11-07T15:25:29Z")
Hmm…not for the faint of heart, but have a look at [http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=140991](http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=140991)
…you might decide that you’re better off downloading [Firebird](http://www.mozilla.org/products/firebird) and using that instead! 🙂
---
### Author:  [@Xerxes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xerxes)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2003, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-media-player-has-me-held-hostage-please-send-help/211705/25 "2003-11-07T15:33:52Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by mmm… forbidden doughnut \*
> \*\*What would something “suspicious” look like? \*\*
Don’t know, I’m afraid :D, something which would lead you to think that this registry entry was the one linking wmplayer with executables, I guess. As to what that would actually be? Sorry.
---
### Author:  [@Tommyturtle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tommyturtle)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2003, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-media-player-has-me-held-hostage-please-send-help/211705/26 "2003-11-07T15:34:29Z")
I don’t know if you’d want to do this but I would think one way to fix this is to uninstall WM player then download it again
Like most everyone here I have no idea how this happened in the first place and never have heard of it happening elsewhere so it must be pretty rare…doubtful it would happen to you again
Good luck!
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-media-player-has-me-held-hostage-please-send-help/211705.md?page=1)