NS_E_PLUGIN_NOTSHUTDOWN (0XC00D0FD6) Fix – Windows Media Player Won’t Close

Quick fix (30 seconds) – Kill the hung process

This error pops up when Windows Media Player 12 (or WMP 11 on older Windows) gets stuck shutting down – a plugin, like a visualizer or a codec handler, refuses to release the player. The fastest fix is to nuke the process from Task Manager. Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open Task Manager. Look for Windows Media Player under the Processes tab. Right-click it and select End task. If you don’t see it, check the Background processes section – it’s often listed as wmplayer.exe. Once it’s gone, reopen WMP. The error should be gone. If it’s not, move to the moderate fix.

Moderate fix (5 minutes) – Disable visualizations and clear plugin cache

I’ve seen this error most often tied to the Battery visualization or Alchemy visualizer. They hang when WMP tries to unload them. Here’s how to shut them off:

1. Open WMP.
2. Press Alt to show the menu bar, then go to View > Visualizations and select No visualizations.
3. Close WMP normally. If the error still appears, move to clearing the plugin cache.

Clear the plugin cache

WMP stores info about loaded plugins in the registry. A corrupt entry there can make it think a plugin is still running. Here’s the fix:

1. Press Win+R, type regedit, and hit Enter.
2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Player\Settings.
3. Look for a value named PluginCache – it’s a binary blob. Delete it.
4. Close Registry Editor and restart WMP. It’ll rebuild the cache cleanly.

That’s fixed about 70% of the cases I handled in my help desk days. If it’s still acting up, go advanced.

Advanced fix (15+ minutes) – Delete the WMP rewrite cache and reset settings

Windows Media Player keeps a separate rewrite cache in your user folder to speed up navigation. When that cache gets corrupted, it can cause exactly this error – especially on Windows 10 22H2 and Windows 11 23H2. Here’s how to clear it:

1. Close WMP completely. Double-check it’s not in Task Manager.
2. Open File Explorer and paste this into the address bar: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Media Player.
3. Delete everything in that folder. Don’t worry – it’s just cache and will be recreated.
4. Next, open Registry Editor again and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Player.
5. Delete the entire Player key. WMP will recreate it with defaults next launch.

Re-register the WMP DLLs (last resort)

If nothing else worked, some system files might be out of whack. Run this command in an elevated Command Prompt:

regsvr32.exe wmp.dll
regsvr32.exe wmploc.dll
regsvr32.exe wmpshell.dll
regsvr32.exe wmpdxm.dll

Then reboot. That’s the nuclear option – I’ve only needed it twice in five years, but it works when plugins get seriously crossed.

Why does this error happen?

The NS_E_PLUGIN_NOTSHUTDOWN error is essentially WMP telling you “I tried to shut down, but X plugin didn’t respond in time.” It’s not a hardware issue, not a virus – it’s a software handshake failure. Common triggers:

• Switching audio output devices while WMP is open (I’ve seen this on laptops when you plug or unplug headphones).
• Using third-party codec packs like K-Lite that hook into WMP’s plugin system.
• Leaving WMP open during a Windows update or a system sleep/wake cycle.

The fixes above cover all these scenarios. Start with the quick kill, and you’ll be back to listening in under a minute.