Windows Media Player 12, Excessive Disk Access (Updated!)

Months ago, when I first installed the Windows 7 RC, I noticed a Windows Media Player service (wmpnetwk.exe) was running constantly. The results were excessive disk access and constant CPU usage when no applications were running. After reinstalling Windows a few weeks ago, I came across this issue again. Fortunately, it's a very simple fix.

Core 1 working hard

wmpnetwk.exe using 19% CPU

As you can see in the images, core 1 of my CPU was working hard at doing something. It turns out it is Windows Media Player indexing my files for network sharing.

If you don't plan using any Windows Media Player services to share music, you can easily disable the service.

Disable the wmpnetwk service

• Start -> services.msc
• Look for "Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service"
• Stop the service
• Set "Startup type" to "Disabled"

You should be bothered no more.

Footnote: it stills seems to start the service when set to Manual, but I have had no issues with it since. You could always set it to "Disabled" if the problem comes back.
Updated 04-10-2010: it did come back after a week or so. It is now set to 'disabled' and the above instruction have been updated. If it still comes back, we'll have to get more creative!