Vista - Error 0x88982F50, Chapter 2 Rehash & Refinement

Error 0x88982F50


Chapter 2


A rehash of the problem in order to let people know what
I'm talking/writing about.

SITUATION

Windows Explorer will NOT set file properties on JPEG
files. Instead, you get an error message like this:

Apply Properties File

An unexpected error is preventing the operation.
Make a note of this error code, which might be
useful if you get additional help to resolve this
problem:

Error 0x88982f50: No error description available

Beneath this it shows a preview of the bitmap,
along with the filename, dimensions and size.

There are two buttons: "Try Again" and "Cancel".

Trying again just brings up the window again, so there is
really nothing you can do in this error window except
"Cancel" and cry out for help. Which I and several other
people have done, mostly without success. If someone did
find a solution, it has not been advertised.

A visit to Microsoft's Knowledge Base found NOTHING after
a search for "0x88982F50", and a search of the MS Support
Home page also found nothing. But in a little search box in
the top of the page was an offer to search the entire
Microsoft site. A search in that box for "0x88982F50"
returned some interesting stuff, including a listing of
"Codec Error Codes".

Clever fellow that I am, I guessed that a "Codec" had
something to do with computer code. So an investigation of
that page found that Error 0x88982F50 is described as
"WINCODEC_ERR_COMPONENTNOTFOUND". My translation of that
description is "Windows Codec Error - A Necessary Component
was Not Found". And my local Vista Help and Support program
gives this definition for a codec: "An abbreviation for
compressor/decompressor. Software or hardware used to
compress and decompress digital media." And as far as I can
tell there is no special hardware on my computer so for me
this is a software problem.

I have had Vista since June of this year 2007. And one
thing about Vista that I have found, to my annoyance, is
that Vista has a problem remembering little things. Things
like folder type settings, window sizes, and my preferences
on the really little things. I don't want to get
distracted, just to make the point that Vista forgets stuff,
and that maybe there was a little piece of code that didn't
fit in there just right.

So I started to search to see if there was a graphics
program that could be interfering somehow. I found
something called "Roxio CD Creator" (or something like
that), Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center. I
started on Roxio and Windows Media Player and wasn't able to
find much under Control Panel/Programs/Change Startup
Programs. Even if I clicked the "Refresh for all users"
button, I didn't see anything I recognized as relevent.

Then I tried Task Manager and the Processes tab. I
clicked the "Show processes from all users" button in order
to see as much as possible. And I decided to sort them by
clicking on the "Command Line" column. I found command
lines for both Roxio and Windows Media Player and started to
"End Process" them one at a time. I didn't permanently
break anything and I could now use Windows Explorer to "tag"
JPEG files.

The problem so far has been that I don't know how to
automate the "turning off" of the processes. I've since
refined this down to turning off only one process (see
below), but I still don't know how to automate my solution.

What I'm trying to do here is advertise what I've found
to work and hope someone out there has a better solution.
Because my solution (see Chapter 1), is tedious at best.

REFINEMENT

Since Chapter 1 was posted the other day, I have refined
my solution a little bit. I still have to go into Task
Manager, but I've narrowed the "bad process" down to one. I
did this by first uninstalling the Roxio CD v. 9 program. I
am so totally unfamilar with audio cds and dvds that I had
no idea what to do with it in the first place, so
uninstalling it was no big deal to me. But I still had the
problem with Windows Explorer unless I continued with Task
Manager.

But uninstalling Roxio did eliminate it as a source of
the problem, at least for me. But that left Windows Media
Player 11 as a potential source of the problem and there
where two or three potential processes coming from the
Windows Media Player folder under Program Files. Well, a
couple of tries found the culprit was:

"Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service"

with the Command Line:

"C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmpnetwk.exe"



And now, my revised solution to Error 0x88982F50:


1. Open Task Manager by right-clicking on the taskbar on
the bottom of your screen and choosing Task Manager from
the menu.

2. Click on the Processes Tab along the top of the Task
Manager screen.

3. In the Processes Tab, find the button in the lower left
of the screen that says "Show processes from all users"
and click it. Click "Continue" at the UAC prompt that
comes up.

4. The screen should go dark for a moment, then return with
many more processes listed. Click on the column "Command
Line" to sort the list and look for:


"C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmpnetwk.exe"

The description in the next column over will read:

Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service



5. Click to select this process. Then click the "End
Process" button in the lower right of the screen.
Confirm "End Process" as necessary.

6. Do steps 1 - 5 prior to opening a Windows Explorer
window for the first time in that particular session.
For some reason if Windows Explorer opens and finds the
"bad conditions", it will assume the "bad conditions"
are still in effect throughout the session. That is my
reasoning at least.


Eliminating just this one Process from Task Manager has
restored Windows Explorer's ability to "see" as well as
"add", "delete" or "edit" Tags or other file properties to
JPEG files. Which was a curiosity because Windows Explorer
would still have worked on the file properties of other file
types such as Word, Excel, WMAs, HTMLs, and MHTs.

Eliminating the "Windows Media Player Network Sharing
Service" process also solved another problem I was going to
look at later. Namely that Windows Photo Gallery would not
save changes to a file such as cropping, red eye, auto
balance, etc. Eliminate this process and now it will. I
didn't even know ahead of time that the problems were
related.

Which brings up another point, why does a single user, at
home, with no use for a network, have to contend with
unnecessary stuff like Network Services. And how do I
permanently prevent this Process from coming up again when I
next start or restart my computer? Does anybody out there
have an idea?

CONTINUE THE THREAD

If anyone has a better solution, please add to the
thread. If this half-baked solution of mine has been of
assistance, please add to the thread. That at least would
show other people whether or not this works in different
situations. It would also show just how much of a problem
this is, and the squeaky wheel get the grease, as they say.
Vista's Service Pack 1 has not yet come out and a fix to
this would solve two problems (or more for all I know) at
once.


--
Steve Furse