Solved Windows Media Player Device Properties

[Frank C]

Hello.
I have WMP 11.0.6002.18311. I am just learning how to use it on a local network.
I received a notification (in the notification area) that Windows Media player had found a unknown device.
I traced the MAC addresses via the router to a ASUS laptop on the local network.
I have the option to allow or deny access to shared media for the device.
The ASUS has a green check which indicates that it is already allowed.
It only has the MAC address and it says unknown device.
I would like to add the descriptive information to the properties for the ASUS.
How do I do this?
Thanks
Frank C

 

[Barman58]

Hello Frank,

Can I assume that this is your laptop and not some interloper?

If so, what OS is the laptop running - Assuming it's a recent windows machine, it should be a case of ensuring that the Workgroup Name is the same on both devices and setting discovery on in the network settings of the laptop

 

[Frank C]

Thanks Barman58
The ASUS laptop with Windows 8.1 is my wife's computer and it is on the local network.
Network discovery is ON and the Work group is WORKGROUP on this machine and on my desktop running Vista.
The second unknown device in the attached screen shot is a Dell Laptop on the same network.
It also has Network Discovery on and Workgroup = WORKGROUP
Properties are absent except for the MAC addresses.
Does Homegroup have any bearing on this problem?
Barman58, Do you remember the 29 Jan. post that you helped me with
" Associate .doc and .docx with Microsoft office word 2007." ?
The problem was resolved. I suspect it was via a Windows update. Please see the last post to that thread.
Thanks
Frank C

 

[Frank C]

Screen Shot was missing in post

 

[Barman58]

Frank,

One way in which Homegroup can effect things is Wireless devices, for some reason, and not in all cases, the Homegroup works better if the actual homegroup is created on a wireless device in the group of networked devices.

As with all Microsoft networks it's also better if all devices actually share something, they have passwords enabled, and the same user name is present on all devices

What OS is the Dell system running? or is this a completely unknown device to you?

 

[Frank C]

Thanks Barman58,
The unidentified laptop is known to me, it is a older DELL Studio running Vista Premium.
It is unlikely that I will use the ASUS or the Dell Studio to share media. I just wanted to have them correctly identified.
Using WMP on the desktop to stream music or pictures to a Samsung TV and a Sony receiver is working satisfactorily.
I am satisfied with that outcome.
Thanks for your help
Frank C

 

[Frank C]

I found the properties for the WMP devices in the system registry at this location:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Media Player NSS\3.0\Devices\00-21-9B-09-1A-72
There will be an entry identified by the MAC address for each device (ex. 00-21-9B-09-1A-72).
I corrected the entries that were missing or in error. The WMP > tools > options > library > Configure Sharing > device(select) > properties,
now show correct information.
Frank C