Any program I try to run goes through windows medea player. Even when I try to go to contents in control panel, windows medea player pops up and an error message says "Windows Media Player cannot play the file. The Player might not support the file type or might not support the codec that was used to compress the file." I can't even get into programs to fix this problem. I'm willing even to completely restore my computer to fix this problem.

There is probably a way to get Windows Media Player working

Make sure your Windows Updates are current -- Also latest Java

Uninstall ---->Windows Media Player in ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMS

Restart your computer and locate the download page

Before installing exit out of programs running between speaker and clock

Many people have problems when they leave programs running during install

Download and install --- Good Luck

The file associations appear to be wrong -- Try restore -- XP?

Use System Restore to Undo Changes if Problems Occur

Hope this helps you fix your computer -- Please let me know how it is going

When you say any program - do you mean ALL programs othere than media files that would normally play through media player. If this is happening with your media files only, you may have a codec problem, if this is issue you need to download proper codecs as yours may have been corrupted.

Quote:

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K-Lite Codec Pack is a collection of codecs and related tools. Codecs are required to encode and/or decode (play) audio and video. The K-Lite Codec Pack is designed as a user-friendly solution for playing all your movie files. With the K-Lite Codec Pack you should be able to play 99% of all the movies that you download from the internet.

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Here is link for codec pack
Free-Codecs.com : Download K-Lite Codec Pack 3.6.2 FULL, K-Lite Codec Pack 3.6.2 STANDARD, K-Lite Codec Pack 3.6.2 BASIC : K-Lite Codec Pack is a collection of codecs and related tools

If this is not the issue I would use the system restore as mentioned above
Let us know how it goes