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I listen to ASX streams in my browser (Chrome 12.0.742.91). When I do, the stream opens a new tab and uses the Microsoft(R) Windows Media Player Firefox Plugin (1.0.0.8).

Unfortunately, the plugin uses visualization, which doesn't really matter to me because I'm never looking at the tab.

Obnoxious visualization

The visualization uses significant system resources:

Chrome Task Manager

I've dug through the options/preferences dialogs that I could find, both for the plugin and for the full Windows Media Player application (version 12.0.7601.17514).

Google searches only seem to offer solutions that involve editing the registry or renaming/deleting DLL files, which I don't prefer as solutions because they feel primitive for something that seems like it should be a user preference.

Is it possible to disable the visualization via a user preference, perhaps hidden in some dialog that I cannot find?

If there is no end-user dialog, I'm willing to accept hackier solutions (e.g. registry edits).

How can I disable the visualization?

Rob Hruska
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3 Answers3

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I found that I could disable the display of visualizations in MP 11 by opening the Playing now tab, opening the drop-down menu there in the tab bar, selecting the Visualizations > pull-right menu, and selecting No Visualizations.

Barney Wray
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Note: These instructions are for the Windows Media Player v12 application (that comes with Windows 10). It should work from the Chrome plugin but has only been tested on the standalone application.

To remove one visualisation only

See this article

To remove all visualisations

  • Exit Windows Media Player
  • Open registry edit (regedit.exe)
  • Navigate to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Objects\Effects
  • Backup this key (right-click > Export)
  • Rename the key name from Effects to Effects-Backup
  • On x64 systems, navigate to HKLM\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Objects\Effects and repeat

Restart Windows Media Player and the annoying visualisation(s) are gone.

AlainD
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0

I decided that I wasn't going to let Microsoft Windows Media Player dictate to me how I was going to experience my media playback and computer resource usage. So I've dumped it. Now I use Media Player Classic. It's a wonderfully lightweight, no nonsense media player and it's free! You can get it here: http://mpc-hc.org/

Always remember, when the software giants start screwing around with you there are always alternatives!

Dave
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