Vista - Media player doesn't display media plays in background

I guess I have to post this here since the jolly support folks ar Microsoft
only give 90 days support on their products. This is the first time I have
needed help.. What a waste of $180, I should have stuck with XP.

Anyway...

When I double click a media file such as music or video, the media plays (I
can hear it) but Windows Media Player does not display on the screen or
taskbar, requiring me to open WMP manually. Once opened, I can see the video
and control the media.

Furthermore, when the media is playing and I close WMP without stopping the
media first, it continues to play in the background until I re-open WMP and
manually stop the media.

I cannot find any imformation regarding this on the Microsoft support site.

I appreciate any help.

Thanks.

Before you click anything, is "wmplayer.exe" listed in the Processes tab of
Task Manager? It sounds like something already has it open in a hidden /
remoted mode. If it's not due to remoting, it could be due to a driver
that's not shutting down properly- checking for updated audio and video card
drivers would be a very good thing to do.

--
Speaking for myself only.
See http://zachd.com/pss/pss.html for some helpful WMP info.
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
--

"SB" <SB@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:4C309460-4861-47E7-945E-30D7430ECCCC@microsoft.com...
>I guess I have to post this here since the jolly support folks ar Microsoft
> only give 90 days support on their products. This is the first time I
> have
> needed help.. What a waste of $180, I should have stuck with XP.
>
> Anyway...
>
> When I double click a media file such as music or video, the media plays
> (I
> can hear it) but Windows Media Player does not display on the screen or
> taskbar, requiring me to open WMP manually. Once opened, I can see the
> video
> and control the media.
>
> Furthermore, when the media is playing and I close WMP without stopping
> the
> media first, it continues to play in the background until I re-open WMP
> and
> manually stop the media.
>
> I cannot find any imformation regarding this on the Microsoft support
> site.
>
> I appreciate any help.
>
> Thanks.