A very frustrating problem with media player on Window vista  popped up a few weeks ago. Whenever starting media player or moving to the next song to play, it took forever before the song started playing while saying "Media Changing".

After reviewing all media player settings, removing and reinstalling all codes and even trying to re-install media player (if anyone finds out how to do it on vista - let me know :) ) I've found out this simple (its frustrating how simple it is) solution http://digg.com/microsoft/How_to_fix_long_Media_Changing_times_in_Windows_Media_Player

The last step may appear different as "Disable system effects" but it is working great!

 

here's an interesting observation - the whole thing started when I 'patched' my pc system rating (Windows experience index) - http://www.tweakvista.com/Article39183.aspx. That then caused windows to enable the 'system effects'. BUT - the smart guys didn't think it should be disabled when the index is changed back....