Error Message Appears When a Limited User Tries to Stream Media in Windows Media Player

When you are a limited user on Windows XP Home Edition, you cannot receive streamed media through Windows Media Player. The following error message appears:

This behavior can occur if Windows XP was installed by your original equipment manufacturer (OEM) or corporate administrator through the use of an image that was created with Sysprep. In this case, the user profile is copied from an existing UsrClass.dat file to "Default User." However, if there is no profile under "Default User" in the UsrClass.dat file and the profile is issued for the first time, this behavior does not occur.

Service pack information

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Microsoft Windows XP. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Hotfix information

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Windows XP. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: If you cannot install the latest service pack for Windows XP, install the following hotfix.

A supported hotfix is now available from Microsoft, but it is only intended to correct the problem that is described in this article. Only apply it to systems that are experiencing this specific problem. This hotfix may receive additional testing. Therefore, if you are not severely affected by this problem, we recommend that you wait for the next Windows XP service pack that contains this hotfix.

To resolve this problem immediately, contact Microsoft Product Support Services to obtain the fix. For a complete list of Microsoft Product Support Services phone numbers and information about support costs, visit the following Microsoft Web site:NOTE: In special cases, charges that are ordinarily incurred for support calls may be canceled if a Microsoft Support Professional determines that a specific update will resolve your problem. The typical support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for the specific update in question.

The English version of this fix should have the following file attributes or later:

To work around this behavior, delete the Usrclass.dat file that is located in the user profile of the Default User, Guest, and limited user accounts:

1. Log on to the computer by using a computer administrator account.
2. Right-click Start, and then click Explore.
3. On the Tools menu, click Folder Options.
4. Click the View tab, and then in the Advanced settings list, under Files and Folders, do the following:
   1. Under Hidden files and folders, click Show hidden files and folders.
   2. Click to clear the Hide file extensions for known file types check box.
5. Click OK.
6. Locate the following folders, where drive is the drive on which Windows is installed and UserName is the name of the limited user account that is experiencing the behavior that is described in the "Symptoms" section of this article. There may be more than one limited user account on the computer.
   drive:\Documents and Settings\Default User\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows
   drive:\Documents and Settings\Guest\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows
   drive:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows
7. Delete the Usrclass.dat file in each of the folders that you located in step 6:
   1. Right-click the Usrclass.dat file, and then click Delete.
   2. Click Yes to confirm the deletion.
8. Quit Windows Explorer.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article. This problem was first corrected in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2.