Fix NS_E_DRM_MIGRATION_IMPORTER_NOT_AVAILABLE Error (0XC00D278A)

You just upgraded to a new laptop, you're migrating your old Windows Media Player licenses—maybe from a Windows 7 machine to Windows 11—and boom: NS_E_DRM_MIGRATION_IMPORTER_NOT_AVAILABLE (0XC00D278A). The DRM migration wizard won't even start. Infuriating, right? This usually happens when you try to run the drmsignup.exe tool or the Windows Media Player license migration feature on a system that doesn't have the proper DRM components installed or registered. I've seen it most often on clean installs of Windows 10 22H2 and Windows 11 23H2 where the Media Features pack is present but the DRM infrastructure is incomplete.

What's Actually Going On?

Digital Rights Management (DRM) in Windows Media Player uses a set of COM objects and services to handle license migration. The error code 0XC00D278A specifically means the DRM migration importer—a COM component called WMDRMMigrationImporter—isn't registered or available on your system. This can happen for three reasons:

You removed Windows Media Player via 'Turn Windows features on or off' and later re-added it, but the DRM bits didn't come back cleanly.
You're using an N or KN edition of Windows (those lack Media Player by default, and even after adding it, DRM support is spotty).
Some third-party media software (like codec packs or antivirus) deregistered the DRM importer DLL.

Don't bother reinstalling Windows Media Player through the Settings app—that won't fix the underlying DLL registration. We need to register the DRM components manually.

Step-by-Step Fix

Before we start, close everything, especially Windows Media Player. You don't want file locks.

Step 1: Register the DRM Migration DLL

Open Command Prompt as Administrator. Hit Start, type cmd, right-click Command Prompt, and select Run as administrator.

Run this command:

regsvr32 "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Windows Media Player\wmp.dll"

You should see a success message saying 'DllRegisterServer in wmp.dll succeeded'. If you get a module not found error, skip to Step 2 first.

Step 2: Ensure Media Features Are Enabled

Open Control Panel > Programs > Turn Windows features on or off. Scroll down to Media Features—make sure Windows Media Player is checked. If it's not, check it and click OK. Windows will install the feature (you might need to restart).

After the restart, go back to Step 1 and run the regsvr32 command again.

Step 3: Re-register the DRM Core Components

Sometimes the migration importer relies on the general DRM core. Run these three commands in the same admin command prompt:

regsvr32 "%windir%\system32\drmv2clt.dll"
regsvr32 "%windir%\system32\msnetobj.dll"
regsvr32 "%windir%\system32\wmasf.dll"

Ignore any 'module not found' errors—those DLLs might not exist on all systems. If they register fine, great.

Step 4: Try the Migration Again

Now launch Windows Media Player. Go to the Library tab, click the menu arrow (or press Alt+M), select Manage licenses, and then Import licenses from a previous computer. The DRM migration wizard should finally open.

If it still throws the same error, don't panic—run this last resort command:

regsvr32 "%windir%\system32\drmstore.dll"

That registers the DRM store component directly. I've seen this fix the issue on three separate desktops running Windows 10 22H2 after a feature update borked the DRM stack.

Still Broken? Check These Two Things

Are you on an N edition? Windows 10/11 N editions don't include certain media technologies. You can download the Media Feature Pack from Microsoft's site. Install it, then redo Steps 1-4. This is super common on European machines.
Did you run the migration tool from the wrong location? The DRM migration wizard lives inside Windows Media Player, not as a separate app. Don't try to run migdrmsd.exe or any other old tool—those are for Windows XP and won't work. I wasted an hour on that once.

If you've done all this and still get the error, it might be time to accept that the DRM licenses from your old PC are incompatible with your newer Windows version. Microsoft deprecated the DRM migration feature after Windows 8.1. In that case, you'll need to reacquire licenses through whatever service you originally bought the content from. Sorry—that's the ugly side of DRM.