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The official Windows 7 isn’t out yet (apart from the official beta version) but, incredible to say, the first hotfix is already out, fixing a very important issue which could cause MP3 data corruption. If you have Windows 7 I highly advise you to download and install this patch otherwise you might have big issues while using Windows Media Player 12. What do I mean? I mean that all of  your Mp3 files may become corrupted!

Yes, you got it right! As a matter of fact, the new Windows Media Player 12 in Windows 7 may harm and corrupt your beloved MP3 files with no way to fix them back. The first sign about Mp3 corruption is that approximately 2-3 seconds will be swept away from the files. This happens when the user try to configure WMP 12 in order to retrieve information about their songs from the Internet. To make things even worst, WMP 12 will automatically set this option on, if the user uses the express “Recommended settings” during the first setup.  Here is what Microsoft itself advise:

To protect your MP3 files

1. Before you install this beta release, back up all MP3 files that might be accessed by the computer, including those on removable media or shared network resources.
2. Ensure that all MP3 files are set to read-only. To do this, in Windows Explorer, find the files, right-click them, click the General tab, and then select the Read-only check box.
3. Install this beta release of Windows 7.
4. Read the article and install the update available at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=139391.
5. Once you have installed the update, you can safely reset the read/write status of your MP3 files to your preference.

If you do not want to install the update, you can avoid this issue by setting all MP3 files that might be accessed to the computer to read-only as in Step 2.

If you want to download the hotfix (KB961367)  here are the links:

• x86 (32-bit): Windows6.1-KB961367-x86.msu
• x64 (x64-bit): Windows6.1-KB961367-x64.msu