Windows Media player will not play my CD’s off-line. It demands my connecting to the web before it will operate. My machine will freeze unless I do. This phenomenon is recent. Is there a way around it (as I really don’t wish to connect to the net just to play my own CD’s)?

This problem is probably caused by your Windows Media Player wanting to download the CD information from the internet (e.g., track names and the album name). When Media Player can’t find an internet connection, rather than giving you an error message along the lines of not being able to connect, for some reason it freezes your computer. I am not sure if there is the option to disable the function of downloading CD album information, as my searches in Media Player and also on the internet, have not produced any solution. If any other readers do know of a way to disable this function, please write in. However, your computer should not freeze just because Windows Media Player cannot access the internet. If you are offline, before playing a CD go into Internet Explorer and on the ‘File’ menu, enable ‘Work Offline’ to see if this makes a difference. If not, then you probably have three other alternatives. Firstly, if the current installed version of Windows Media Player did not come with your operating system (i.e., you installed it youself) try reinstalling the application. Secondly, try upgrading Windows Media Player to the latest version (if it is not already). Finally, if all else fails, you may have to use a third-party program to play CDs. You should be able to find quite a few on internet shareware sites.