Windows 8: Uninstall Windows Media Player

You cannot really uninstall the media player in Windows 8, you can only deactivate it. We show you how to do this in this article.

Windows 8: Deactivate media player - how it works

You cannot uninstall Windows Media Player because it is part of the Windows 8 operating system. However, there are reasons to use other programs to listen to music. The WMP process "wmpnetwk.exe" consumes a lot of CPU power and thus slows down the system. You can remedy this by deactivating Windows Media Player.

1. Move the mouse to the lower left corner of the screen. Then press the right mouse button.
2. Use the context menu to go to "Programs and Features".
3. In the side menu of the new window you will now see the item "Activate or deactivate Windows features". Clicking on it opens a window with all Windows features.
4. Scroll down to the "Media Features" folder. Click on the little plus sign in front of the folder symbol, you will see that Windows Media Player is located here.
5. Next, remove the check mark in front of "Media Features". You will receive a dialog message that deactivating it may affect other programs or features. This message checks whether you really want to deactivate the media player. Confirm the request with "Yes" and the change with "OK".
6. It now takes a little while for the system to process your request. You will then be asked to restart the PC for the change to take effect.

If you decide to continue using Windows Media Player, read how to create playlists for WMP.