title: How to determine if Windows Media Player is installed when using WPF MediaElement
body: <p>I wonder if it is possible to determine if a Windows system has Windows Media Player installed.</p>
  <p>WPF's MediaElement is a wrapper around it, so when Windows Media Player is not available it cannot be used to play content.</p>
  <p>Is there a way to track if it is installed (hopefully without digging through the registry to see what is installed on the system)?</p>
  <p>To make matters confusing, Windows 10 seems to have two Media Player installs that can be turned on or off, which do not seem to relate to the same thing. One is under <code>Settings</code> &gt; <code>Apps &amp; Features</code> &gt; <code>Optional Features</code>, the other under <code>Settings</code> &gt; <code>Apps &amp; Features</code> &gt; <code>Programs and Features</code> &gt; <code>Programs and Features</code> (new window) &gt; <code>Windows Features</code> (and in the list under <code>Media Features</code>). I believe the latter is the one WPF uses because I had this one turned off but the other one turned on and a MediaElement would not play until I set the 'off' one to 'on'.</p>