Microsoft Patches Trip Up Windows Media Player

Three security patches may cause player performance problems.

NEW YORK -- Three recently released Microsoft security patches may cause performance problems for Windows Media Player users, according to a company advisory.

Users who have applied the patches may experience problems when seeking, rewinding, or fast-forwarding files, said the advisory. For example, files may return to the start position or freeze up.

One of the patches at issue is a critical fix released by Microsoft last month, MS06-005, for a vulnerability in the way Windows Media Player processes bitmap files. The process could allow remote code execution.

Older Patches
The other two updates, released in October of last year, are a fix to enable Microsoft DirectX Video Acceleration of video content for video cards used in certain drivers and an update for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 that addresses several stability and performance issues.
As possible work-arounds, Microsoft suggests that Windows Server 2003 SP1 users disable the Advanced Fast Start feature on the publishing point and make sure that the server-side playlist does not use the "clipBegin" element. Information about the problems has been posted on the Microsoft Help and Support site.

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