Okay, all in all I like WMP11 with one exception: every time it starts up it uses the WU engine to scan for updates. This in turn takes all my CPU until the scan is complete which is usually 1-2 minutes (time will vary depending on how many patches you have installed). It doesn't seem to respect the "Check once a month" setting so the only option left to me is to block it all togeather...

WARNING: Doing this will block WMP from ever being able to update. I don't think the codec download engine relies on this, but it is possible that it will block that as well. Many applications try to install the WMP runtime (not sure who all does this, but probably real, napster, mediamonky ect. anyone that relies on the runtime.) so doing this can block portions of their install. You have been warned...

What I did was use the built in debugger combined with the way application shims are registered. Passing the debugger a -- tells it to quit and terminate the program being debugged.

Add the following registry key:
Inside this key add a new string value of Debugger and then set the value to be ntsd --. The end result should look like:
If you want to be prompted each time rather then silently blocking it, remove the --. Now each time you will see the ntsd debugger launch and give you a command line, to allow the program to run type 'g' in the command line; to kill it type 'qq'.

If there is interest I can probably think up a user readable prompt to put up rather then the ntsd debugger.

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