Install Windows Media Player 11 on Windows Server 2003
December 17th, 2006 by 
Zack Whittaker
Aye, I’ve finally worked out a way how to do this, and as far as I can see from 5 test machines running Windows Server 2003, Standard; Windows Server 2003, Enterprise; Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise; Windows Server 2003, Datacenter, Windows Server 2003 x64 Enteprise… it works.
1) Download the Windows Media Player 11 setup file from here and save to disk.
2) Run the setup file - the first thing you should see if a validation checker. Just leave this up, don’t go any further.
3) Search the hard drive for “wmp11.exe” - it should be in a temporary directory somewhere. Right click the file in the search then click “Open containing folder” (and not open).
4) Open and run the wmfdist11.exe file, then umdf.exe and wmdbexport.exe. Be warned, you may need to run these files in Compatibilty Mode. Simply right click each file, click Properties. Go to the Compatibility tab, then ensure that Windows XP is selected.
5) After all these are installed, you must restart (very important.)
6) Once you’ve restarted, run the wmp11.exe file in the same directory - this also may require compatibility settings being applied to it. Restart once more.
7) Back into Windows again, go to Start, Run then type in wmplayer then OK. Configure as you like, and viola it’s done 
Any questions?
Post em here 
Posted in Media Center/Media Player, Windows Server System, Windows XP | 
December 18th, 2006 at 5:13 pm
not working on Server 2003 R2.
SS:
http://img294.imageshack.us/my.php?image=server2003r2fh9.jpg
December 19th, 2006 at 5:42 am
And why would you want to do this??
December 19th, 2006 at 3:24 pm
This only works in SP2 RC. SP1 will fail.
December 22nd, 2006 at 7:25 pm
Omg guys there is a easier way just change the compatibility to windows xp on wmfdist11.exe and wmp11.exe, install first wmfdist11.exe and then wmp11.exe wola..
January 2nd, 2007 at 11:36 am
i want install window media 11 server 2003. thank your!
January 3rd, 2007 at 11:15 pm
Okay…I got this installed (had to install the SP2 beta for Server 2003 first)…but it doesn’t look like the “Media Sharing” is working. Any ideas?
January 3rd, 2007 at 11:22 pm
Poked around a bit and found that the Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service was not running. Unfortunately when I try to start it I get ‘Error 1075: The dependency service does not exist or has been marked for deletion.’
All dependencies that are listed on the Dependencies tab for the service ARE present and running…so I’m perplexed.
January 5th, 2007 at 9:04 pm
To install WMP11 on Windows 2003 with SP1 just change the value on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Windows\CSDVersion from 100 to 200, then follow instructions in article, and after install change back to 100.
To “Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service was not running” - Windows 2003 doesn’t contain Upnphost and SSDPSRV services, so Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service will not run on Windows 2003. May be this was a one of the reasons the WMP11 no released for Windows 2003.
November 2nd, 2007 at 2:16 pm
Thanks SO much! I got it to install and this should allow me to stream to my Xbox 360.
MS is pretty short sighted, god forbid you be able to server your media collection from an actual server environment!
January 4th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
The Firefox WMP plugin (http://port25.technet.com/pages/windows-media-player-firefox-plugin-download.aspx) also refuses to install on Server 2003, but a manual installation can be performed by opening the installer as an archive. Use a program like 7-zip (http://www.7-zip.org/) to open first the downloaded .exe. Inside the .exe you will find ffplugin.msi, and inside that is ffplugin.cab. Inside the .cab file is a file called NPMSWMPdll; put this in your Firefox\plugins\ folder and rename it to NPMSWMP.dll and you should be ready to play WMP files in Firefox.
January 6th, 2008 at 2:03 am
Awesome,
Now I can watch my netflix through my windows 2003 vm.
Thanks
January 6th, 2008 at 2:55 am
Happy To Help…If you have any questions feel free to ask.
January 7th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Thanks Zack - worked a treat!
January 27th, 2008 at 1:58 am
Worked like a champ, thanks for sharing this info!
February 4th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
Thanx alot Suertreus, this is what I was looking for. Great job!
February 14th, 2008 at 2:33 am
infreeze’s suggestion worked really well … just right-click on the files, go to Properties, and click on the Compatibility tab. From there, it’s obvious what to do. Thanks!
February 19th, 2008 at 4:35 am
The install worked fine, but when I try to enable sharing with the “Share my media” check box under the “Configure Sharing…” button in the “Library” tab of the options menu, it fails. I check the box and click okay, but the window doesn’t close and after a while, the box is asking me to click okay or cancel again. If I close and re-open, the check box is empty still. What to do?
February 19th, 2008 at 4:54 am
I get the same error Guru did… what was the solution for those who where able to get it working (I’m trying to share to my XBox 360 as well).
February 27th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
I could not even locate the wmp11.exe file ? and the registry for
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Windows\CSDVersion is already set to 200.
Not sure how to accomplish this. Any help would be appreciated.
March 5th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Yeah I can’t find the wmp11.exe file either.
March 8th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
You have to make sure that it’s set to explore hidden files and folders as well under the advanced tab
March 24th, 2008 at 3:24 am
Awesome dude!
March 24th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
Excellent,
Works fine under Windows 2003 Enterprise RC2 SP2,
Just one question - why is there a s*^&load of links - hidden - for Viagra products in the source text of this webpage…?
April 4th, 2008 at 2:17 am
Oh hey there, Thanks very much for the heads up…it looks like someone has injected script into the main php template of the site. I note that trend micro have issued a statement regarding hackers taking controll of >2.33 sites (http://blog.trendmicro.com/wordpress-233-invaded-by-wily-javascript/)
It seems they have uploaded to the wp-content dir as well.
Again,
Thanks very much for the heads up!
April 22nd, 2008 at 2:08 am
Goood!
It really works!
Thanks to Zack Whittaker
April 26th, 2008 at 10:41 pm
Awesome, thanks it works on 2003 SP1, however, if you want to stream DRM material like Netflix, then you also have to install Windows Rights Management Service.
May 15th, 2008 at 5:28 am
So, has ANYONE gotten streaming / Configure Sharing to work? I think not, which is the ONLY reason I wanted to put WMP11 on 2k3. So, now I’m trying to get the Vista version to run on 2008 server. Anyone?
May 19th, 2008 at 6:06 am
thanks so much (y)
May 24th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Its working great….Thank you
July 2nd, 2008 at 11:40 am
I understand some of you only want WMP11 installed on Server 2003 to stream media to an Xbox360. My suggestion is to ditch WMP11 (for media streaming anyway) and use TVeristy Media Server because it supports many more file formats and is designed to run on Server 2003 from the begining. I use this myself and it is worth it.
July 4th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
A HowTo for “Installing SSDP and UPNP services under Windows 2k3″ can be found here:
http://alantechreview.blogspot.com/2008/03/installing-ssdp-and-upnp-services-under.html
-
Thanks for the great WPM11-on-WS2003 HowTo!
July 19th, 2008 at 11:14 am
[...] sure whether that may help, or is it WMP11, just refuses to install anyway saying unsupported OS. MSBLOG Blog Archive Install Windows Media Player 11 on Windows Server 2003 then see if that works. __________________ Ray Check your codecs are fine with Filmerit. [...]
July 22nd, 2008 at 2:43 am
Did someone figure out the Media Sharing issue? A bit frustrating to have everything working but the Media Sharing part!!!
July 24th, 2008 at 1:52 am
Installation worked fine with me. Now, did anybody figure out how to run the windows updates/fixes?
When I try, i get the error message “The version of windows you have installed does not match the update you are trying to install”
July 28th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
I found a way to configure Windows Media Player 11 Media Sharing on XP computers!
At first, I was running into the problem where you would “configure media sharing,” and after selecting the “share media” check box, WMP11 would freeze for a bit, and then I wouldn’t be able to save my settings. Here’s the fix…
Go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services. Make sure the following services are enabled:
1. HTTP SSL
2. SSDP Discovery Service
3. Universal Plug and Play Device Host
4. Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service
I’m not sure whether or not the “Manual” or “Automatic” settings play any significant factor, but I’m sure they do. My machine has the Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service set to “automatic.”
I hope this fixes things.
July 30th, 2008 at 10:22 am
the WMP11.exe installation take more time what should i do?
August 4th, 2008 at 8:06 am
Works fine on Windows 2003 Server Enterprise Edition R2-SP2
Thanks for this Blog and Wmp11.
Keep up, good job!
One “IMPORTANT” note: Just extract wmp11-windowsxp-x86-enu.exe to a folder (your choice) with Winrar.After that you go to that folder and start tutorial at step 4.Everything works fine.
August 14th, 2008 at 7:11 am
Works perfectly with Windows Server 2003 Enterprise SP2 and Netflix! Thank you very much!!!
And to the one with the comment about why this is needed… Because you don’t see a point doesn’t mean it’s useless. I’m building a Media Center/Web server/Backup server/Whatever server and the Media Center part has to work with Netflix’s DRMed videos. This limits my choice to Windows because only WMP 11 is accepted at this time. And I’m not going to run a VM under Linux just to watch Netflix (and besides, MythTV sucks). My choice is further limited to Windows Server because of the server duties of this machine. And 2003 is my choice because 2008 is bloated and less efficient IMO, but that may change some day. I’m tired of moronic shortsighted comments, so I felt I had to respond, but this puts me at the same idiotic level… Baah.
August 15th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
The reason Media Sharing doesn’t work on 2003 Svr is because the Windows Media Network Sharing Service is not running. And the reaon that service is not running is because there is a dependency service not there (HTTP). The reason that dependency is not there is because it’s only installed on Windows XP. Therefore, it doesn’t seem possible to have Media Sharing on Windows 2003 Svr. QED
Slick
August 24th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
I can’t find Wmp11.exe and wmfdist11.exe, and how can I find them, if they’re not installed on my computer ? , first I ran the setup to wmp11, and then searched my harddisk for Wmp11 & wmfdist11, and none of them were found !, and if I continued the installation, the setup stops with a message ”Unsupported Operating System”, somebody help me ?
OS : Windows Server 2003 SP2
August 25th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
On Windows Home Server SP1 (built on Server 2003) I couldn’t find the files through the new “desktop search” that is built in.
I found the files in C:\Documents and Settings\{user}\Local Settings\Temp\1\IXP000.TMP You may want to start at \Temp\ and just poke around.
I also found that the computer was ready to restart after wmfdist11.exe installation, which you should do. Then just restart the main installation up to the validate screen to recreate the temporary files. And finish up with wmp11.exe in compatibility mode. The other two files do not seem to be required.
August 30th, 2008 at 3:55 am
Can someone explain how to get past the DRM issue, which keeps you from watching netflix, you have to validate if you download off windows so what is the alternative?
much appreciated
August 31st, 2008 at 5:34 am
Damon, which DRM issue? Netflix works fine for me with these instructions.