Why do I receive a wmplayer.exe error when I start Windows Media Player 7 or later versions?

A. If you receive the following error when you start Windows Media Player (WMP), you might have a bad play list or you might not have the appropriate user rights:

wmplayer.exe has generated errors and will be closed by Windows. 
You will need to restart the program. 

An error log is being created.

The problem might be the result of a play list (a .asx file) that contains invalid STARTMARKER or ENDMARKER tags. To resolve this error, you can either delete and recreate the play list or open the .asx file in Notepad and correct the STARTMARKER and ENDMARKER tags (correcting these tags is more complicated than simply recreating the play list). The correct format is

<STARTMARKER NUMBER = "1" />

or

<STARTMARKER NAME = "Marker_StartHere" />

and

<ENDMARKER NUMBER = "20" />

or

<ENDMARKER NAME = "Marker_StopHere" />

If you are unsure of what the values should be, simply back up the file and try deleting the <STARTMARKER> and <ENDMARKER> statements.

You will also receive the above error message if a user without administration rights logs on and tries to play a CD-ROM while "Start player in Media Guide" is enabled. To resolve this error so that users with regular permission rights can use WMP, perform the following steps:

1. Log on as an administrator.
2. Start WMP.
3. From the Tools menu, select Options.
4. Select the Player tab, clear the "Start player in Media Guide" check box, and click OK.