Windows 7 Media Player - Server execution failed

Hi,

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You may try the steps as below and check if the issue gets fixed,

Lets try these three troubleshooting methods first and verify if it is resolved.

Method 1.

Now you have to stop the Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service and check for the issue, to do that you need to follow the steps provided below.

1. Control Panel -- Administrative Tools -- Services. Find the Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service, open it, click on Stop to stop the service.
2. Close Windows Media Player 12 if it is started.
3. input %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Media Player\ to Windows Explorer to find the folder.
4. Move all files in the folder to another place as a backup.

Note: Move files in the specific folder will reset database.

5. Restart Windows Media Player to see if we can add files to Library now.

Method 2. 

1. Click on Start and in the search bar type cmd.exe
2. Right click on cmd.exe and click on Run as Administrator
3. In the command prompt type the following command

     net localgroup "Administrators" "NT Authority\Local Service" /add

4. Press enter and restart the computer

Method 3.Uninstalling and Reinstalling the Windows Media Player:

**Step 1.Uninstalling the Windows Media Player:**1. Go to Start and in the search type "Turn Windows features On or Off".

2. Click on "Turn Windows features On or Off".
3. Browse to the Media Features and uncheck the mark in front of Windows Media Player.
4. Restart the computer

Step 2.

**Reinstalling the Windows Media Player:**1. Go to Start and in the search type "Turn Windows features On or Off".

2. Click on "Turn Windows features On or Off".
3. Browse to the Media Features and place a check mark in front of Windows Media Player.
4. Restart the Computer.

Try playing the file now.

Thanks and Regards:

Suresh Kumar- Microsoft Support.

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3 days stable now without problems.  I haven't finished adding everything back yet, so I haven't been able to identify the offending programs(s) or service(s).  However, I thought  would give a quick update for any others still reading this and/or working to troubleshoot.

All except for one of the services has been re-enabled. That service is/was Logitech Bluetooth Service.  I don't know why it was installed, as I don't have any bluetooth devices in my HTPC, but it might have been put in there as part of the install for Logitech SetPoint and the wireless keyboard/mouse I have on that machine.  Regardless...shouldn't be there.  I will enable it for the next few days to see if I get any lockups...but I suspect it isn't the issue.  I had only 4 other non-microsoft services enabled, APC UPS service, Carbonite (cloud backup), Intel Matrix storage, and the NVIDIA Display Driver Service.  Its possible that the Logitech Bluetooth conflicted with one of those services as well to create problems...obviously he NVIDIA driver could cause problems for WMP.

There are still about half the programs to re-enable, including Adobe, AVG (possible culprit, I'm beginning to suspect the "free" versions of antivirus are problematic, quicktime, Live Sync, Live Mesh.  The last one, and another possible culprit, is the Windows SideBar.  Seems to me I had problems with it in Vista as well and eventually just disabled it.  I kinda liked the weather toolbar on my TV, but if that's the culprit...then I can at last look for other options.

So...for others having issues, might I suggest disabling AV services or at least installing a different version....possibly disabling auto-start of SideBar.  I keep trying to run as many videos as possible when I can to tax the system, but some days are busy.  Perhaps someone has a script that would allow for sequential launches of WMP with different files?  Slightly different than just the playlist.

One other thing I am unsure of how to test is the automatic change of desktops.  I mean,disabling it is easy enough, but which executable or service is responsible for this?

That's it for now.  Would be nice is a MS Support tech were to chime in here...let us know that the various open articles have been consolidated and escalated.

This was a fairly simple fix for me and I was able to duplicate both the problem and the fix. WMP continued to have "Server Execution Error" until I uninstalled all 3rd party codecs. I then later realized that it wasn't the codecs themselves causing the error but rather the settings I had for them. In order to reset everything back to stock, I uninstalled all codecs from my machine, uninstalled WMP and WMC then restarted, deleted the WMP folder in C:\Program Files, reinstalled WMP and WMC, restarted. Then everything worked as expected. I then reinstalled my codecs and BAM, the problem came back. It wasn't until I messed with the settings, specifically for FFDShow that my problems went away.