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I am using Windows XP Pro.  Sometime in the last couple of weeks,
Windows Media Player 11 has stopped playing any video files although the
sound track part plays normally.  If I play MP3 or WMA files apart from
hearing the music and seeing the icon and Windows Media Player in the
taskbar, there is no indication it is working.  I am not sure when this
started
as I installed another graphics/audio program which instantly took control
of all file
extensions.
As this new program worked quite well I was happy to let it be until it came
across
one particular extension which required Windows Media Player.
I uninstalled WMP11 and reverted back to WMP9 and the video file I wanted to
watch played OK.  I then updated to WMP11 again and the fault was still
there.  I reverted back to WMP9 again but this time WMP9 wouldn't display
any video either, in the same manner as WMP11.  I removed WMP11 and
re-installed it from Windows XP CD.  The fault remains the same.  I can play
videos using other programs and therefore there is no fault with the video
card.  Is this a codec missing?  I have had a number of other strange faults
at the same time like Accessories.... Games being present but no games
actually there.  I cured that by copying missing files into Windows/System32
Microsoft Paint had also disappeared and was replaced in the same way.  I
did try to restore when the WMP11 problem first appeared, but there were no
restore points showing although I know for a fact that some existed.  In the
end I was forced to do a complete system restore from a two week old back-up
on another drive  so I don't know whether those files were missing before or
whether the restore of the back-up failed to restore properly.

Can somebody please help and earn my undying gratitude.