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[atodzia]

Media Center 18 seems gives me an error message and can't play files but then I reinstall and it works. Message is something like unrecognizable format I think. Next time it happens I will write down the message.

[atodzia]

The exact message is "Something went wrong with playback". It happens with Wav and Flac files. If I run the installer it will fix the problem. I think it is related to anytime I boot up and use Media Player for the first time in that boot-up of Windows 8. How do I fix this?

[Matt]

This sounds like a problem caused by a registry cleaner program that corrupts the registry (our install).

Do you ever run a registry cleaner?

[atodzia]

Yes, I run CC Cleaner and Raxco Registry Cleaner.

[JimH]

Don't run them.  Remove them from your system.

[glynor]

CCleaner is fine.  I'm not sure about the Raxco one.  However...

Generally don't use generalized registry "cleaning" unless it is to fix a specific problem.  So, for example, running CCleaner is fine in normal "Cleaner" mode.  But if you switch to the Registry tab and do the Scan for Issues, anything it finds might be a problem, but it also might be completely legitimate Registry use by an application that CCleaner doesn't recognize.  And this isn't a "it is probably bad, but there is a very small chance it is fine" kind of thing, it is more of a "we don't know what this is, so it might be bad, but equally might be just something we don't recognize".  Blindly running one of these scans and not being extremely selective about what you "fix" (remove) is asking for trouble.

If, instead, you know you are having trouble with an application "preserving" settings of some kind, even after you uninstall it and try to remove the settings "properly", that might be a good thing to use something like CCleaner's Registry Scan on.  Uninstall the application, then run the CCleaner Registry Scan, and remove anything it finds clearly related to the application with which you're having trouble.

Like that, certain ones can be good for targeted "problem solving" (and CCleaner would be a good choice for this kind of use).  The problem is that people run them like anti-virus scans for general maintenance.  This isn't appropriate with modern systems, and will cause trouble.

[atodzia]

Thanks for the replies. It probably is the Raxco one. One of there other new products gave me problems (driver updater) and it ended up taking me 6 hours to fix my system. I asked them for a refund and they gave it to me.

[Matt]

It's virus-like behavior to delete or change registry keys that belong to a different program (HKLM\SOFTWARE\JRiver and HKCU\SOFTWARE\JRiver in this case).

I can't imagine what they might be trying to fix but you should report to them that they're corrupting your computer.

[glynor]

It's virus-like behavior to delete or change registry keys that belong to a different program (HKLM\SOFTWARE\JRiver and HKCU\SOFTWARE\JRiver in this case).

I can't imagine what they might be trying to fix but you should report to them that they're corrupting your computer.

Agreed.

The vast majority of Registry Cleaner applications and utilities out there are snake oil scams.

Basically what has happened is this:  Back in the old days, Windows ran on much different hardware.  Total system memory was measured in increments of low MB in size (I remember when I upgraded a box to 64MB, it was so choice).  The registry could be a significant consumer of that available RAM, and registry problems were common (vendors were new to the whole system, Microsoft was new to it, and there were problems).  So, nerds invented cleaners that were designed to be semi-automated to improve performance and fix known-issues.  These were designed to be run by experts.

The Anti-Virus and Utility "market" saw these and decided it would be something they could market.  Dumb them down, make them "fully automated" and sell them like you sell anti-virus scareware.  Keep in mind:  The anti-virus and utility vendors out there have a financial motivation to have their software "find issues".  This is tempered only by the annoyance that their customers are willing to accept, and by the providers' motivations to ensure repeat business.  But, still, if you ran these things all the time and they never found anything "wrong", you're certainly not likely to be motivated to plunk down for the next re-up, so... There is a strong motivation to make them "look like they're doing something".

The thing is...

We don't have computers with 64MB of total system RAM anymore.  Windows 7 is not Windows 95/98.  A lot has changed, and the registry has grown, but everyone has gotten better at dealing with it, the system has improved, and more importantly, the impact of the total size of the Registry on your overall system RAM allocation is miniscule by today's standards.

Even if those things find issues, and even if they fix them, unless there is a "specific problem" (something broken in your OS) the best-case scenario for real-world performance improvements will be something like 0.0002% lower RAM utilization.  It doesn't matter.  You won't "feel" a 3-5% change in gross system performance in all but contrived (timed) circumstances, much less something so tiny (and only impacting RAM utilization, really, not total performance).

It is snake oil now.  Shovelware placebo.

Like I said, CCleaner is great, free, and not evil.  But it is one of those previously mentioned "expert tools".  Almost all of the rest (except similar utilities) are junk.