Windows Media Player - Flashcodec Problems - Fixed It

Recently, an alarming problem arises in my Windows Media Player, until now. It took a week for me on how to fix it, while my anti-virus still does not find the culprit though I update it regularly.

The problem is, the Windows Media Player stops playing after 9-10 seconds and start loading internet page as if downloading a codec; actually the address in the uniform resource locator (URL) is http://www.flashcodec.com.

I did not panic at first but later I did, when I realized that all of my MP3 files (except WMA) are not playing continuously. This is a concern that needed to be addressed in the internet government. I decided to ask Google.com for some information about this phenomena in WMP and it turned out that it was a malware (look at the bottom of this post to visit some of the resources).

With the use, again, of Google, I found the solution to the problem. The solution worked for me and as of now, I did not encounter the "flashcodec" loading, interrupting the playback of music files. The instructions here according to Max, a contributor in the forum. I did revised it for users who can't understand short instructions.

1. Log-in to the user that is not affected by the malware. For example, if you're using your account in Windows XP, you can try using other users, just make sure you have permissions or you know the username and password.
2. After loading to another user, Click Start -> Run -> type 'regedit'.
3. Then locate the following registry key: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer]
4. Right-click that entry and choose 'Export' and save it any file name you want, for example, "windowsmedia".
5. Open Notepad and edit the exported registry, "windowsmedia".
6. Find the line that looked like this: c:\document & settings\User\document and change the User to the account that is infected. Then, save the file. Make sure that the file is accessible when changing account, to find it easily save it to C:\ root.
7. Log-off then Log-in to the infected account.
8. Click Start -> Run -> type "regedit".
9. Find the registry key: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer] and delete it.
10. Exit the regedit window.
11. Go to the location of the registry file you exported, for our example, the "windowsmedia" (the icon look like a green box).
12. Right-click the file, and choose Merge. When asked if you want to add the entry to the registry, choose Yes.
13. That's it, your WMP works fine the way it should be.

Resources:

• Need help in removing virus.
• Mp3 causes Popup in WMP after 10secs