Hello.
Please forgive this partially-duplicated message. I posted another message over in the Windows 10 Apps section because at the time, I believed that my problem was related to just Windows Media Player. Now after more research (and some other failures), I believe it's more appropriate to post here as it seems to relate more to Windows itself and specifically the 1511 update.
I have Windows 10 Pro 'N' version, which of course doesn't include any of the Media features. When I first upgraded a few months ago to Win 10 (from Win 7), I had to download the "Media Feature Pack for N and KN versions" (Windows10-KB3010081-x64.msu) which added the missing media features (such as WMP) to Windows 10 N. Since then, everything has worked fine and I've been using WMP on a daily basis. Until ...
Yesterday, I upgraded Windows to the 1511 release. It seemed to go fine but this morning, when I tried to play a media file, I discovered that WMP was no longer installed. After a bit of hunting around, I confirmed that WMP has in fact been totally removed from my system. I figured "No Problem", I'll just re-download the Media Feature Pack and reinstall it. So I did that. The Feature Pack installation appeared to finish without any problems and the feature pack installer displayed a message saying that everything was successful. However, despite its claim, it did *not* reinstall WMP. Windows Media Player is still not installed on my system. I tried running the feature pack installer a second time, but it failed because it says that the "Media Feature Pack is Already Installed". I thought that perhaps I could uninstall the Media Feature Pack and then try reinstalling it ... but there seems to be no way to uninstall it. It's not listed anywhere in the "Programs and Features" panel, nor is it listed on the "Turn Windows features On or Off" section. (In fact, there are *no* media related features listed at all in the Turn Windows features On or Off section.)
Unfortunately, I've since discovered that yet another one of my audio-related applications is failing to start. The message I'm getting is that "MFPlat.dll" is missing. That particular dll is one that is installed automatically as part of Windows 10, but must be added to Windows 10 N systems using the Media Feature pack. Obviously the 1511 update removed that file too, and I'm now guessing that perhaps there are other media related files that have been removed by 1511 as well. Regardless, since the Windows Media Feature Pack doesn't seem to install properly on 1511, I can't get those files ... and without those files, I have no Windows Media Player and another one of my applications won't sta
So in summary, my problem is:
1. The 1511 update removed my working Media Feature Pack for Windows 10 N, thus also removing Windows Media Player and causing another one of my applications to fail launching as well.
2. I've re-downloaded the Media Feature Pack and have installed it ... but although it claimed success, it doesn't appear to have actually installed anything.
3. I'm unable to reinstall the feature pack because its installer program claims its already installed and I'm unable to uninstall it first because it doesn't seem to be listed anywhere as being installed.
4. I've run SFC /Scannow, which says everything on my system is fine.
I do have a complete backup that I can restore from, but that of course will revert me to my pre-1511 update state. Even if that solves the problem temporarily, the 1511 update will eventually be forced down on to my system and I'll be right back in the same position.
What can I do to correct this?
Thanks
***Post moved by the moderator to the appropriate forum category.***
