windows xp my music folder and the windows media player 11 does not display song, artist, or album information anymore

Hi THINSKIN,

Have you tried the automated fixit for WMP 11?

http://support.microsoft.com/mats/windows_media_player_diagnostic/

Good Luck.

 I don't remember the steps because I am not at my XP machine at the moment but do you have it set to connect to the internet and search for the information? FWIW, WMP will not display that info if you are not connected when you initially rip or burn the cd.

EDIT: Launch media player, click  tools--->options---Library ???--select retrieve media info from the internet.

yes, I have the option to retrieve additional info from the internet selected. the information has always displayed, for many years, ever since I first put the music on my computer. I have the music backed up on an external drive and every time I reinstall the music, (after I reformat and reinstall windows) the music always displays the information. and then one day I noticed the information was gone, I have tried to reformat the computer twice since that day and that does not work, every time I reinstall the music the information does not display, however I also have a windows 8 computer and I can copy the music to that computer and the information displays fine, just as it always did with the XP computer. I have done online searches for the problem and I have noticed that I'm not the only one experiencing the problem, other people are experiencing the same problems with windows XP, vista, and 7. this is also why I'm starting to think it's and update from the windows update site, however I'm not 100% sure of this. once again, thanks for suggestions.

Try these steps to further troubleshoot this issue.

WMP FAQ'S.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Media-information-in-Windows-Media-Player-frequently-asked-questions

Re-Register WMP Files on your computer.

To do this, follow these steps:

a) Go to Start menu and type cmd.

b) Click on cmd.

c) Type in the following command without the quotes and press Enter.

UNREGMP2.EXE /UPDATEWMPVERSION

UNREGMP2.EXE /UPDATEWMP

d) Click Ok.

e) Close the command prompt

Restart your computer and check to see if this helps to resolve the issue

Do you have iTunes installed or have recently uninstalled iTunes?

no I don't use iTunes. and once again, thanks for all your help.

 I will say that I have been through 4 reformats and re-installation of windows trying to figure out this problem, I reformat each time so that I start over with a fresh clean system. I have thought the problem was due to some updates from the windows update, and possibly from the media player 11 download, I just was not sure though. however I have noticed that after I do the reformat and re-install windows the music that comes pre-installed, there's like two songs that comes pre -installed and there in the my music folder, these two songs and all their information along with the music that I copy to the computer reads just fine in the my music folder and in the media player 9 which is the default version on my copy of XP.

 and after I start installing some of the updates is when I loose all of the song information. The last time I did the reformat which was yesterday I noticed the song, artist, album, etc, information was lost after I downloaded and installed the media player 11 from the windows update site. So once again, today I did another reformat and re-install of windows, only this time I did not install the media player 11 from the windows update site, and I have not got everything completely finished or set up yet but so far the music is reading just fine in the my music folder and the media player 9. So as of this moment I believe the problem is with the media player 11 download from the windows update site which is crazy because I have used that download many times in the past and it has always worked fine, however I still got some more music to add to the computer so time will tell here if that's the problem or not.

Also, can you tell me what the register.dll is all about, is that re-registering the media player, my music or what?

Thanks once again for your help.