Disable or Delete Mspmspsv.exe

Mspmspsv.exe is the Windows Media Device Manager Pre-Message Security Protocol service. This process comes with a specific update for Microsoft Corporation’s Windows Media Player. The process allows the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI) to be utilized for digital music media. Mspmspsv.exe is a necessary update for MS Digital Right Management (DRM) and is installed on Windows 2000. The mspmspsv.exe executable file allows the user to copy and transfer audio content to a portable player. On Windows XP/2003, mspmspsv.exe is an instance of the generic host process svchost.exe and is known as the Portable Media Serial Number.

File Information

By default, you will find this file located under C:\Windows\System32 or sometimes in a subfolder of C:\Program Files. File sizes have been noted to be 53,520, 53,248, 98,576 and 57,344 bytes for Windows XP.

Note that any malware can be masked as a valid file. An example of malware pretending to be the mspmspsv.exe file is the mspmspv.exe file. Note the similarity of the names. On a cursory glance you may easily miss this difference and mistake the file as legitimate. The latter is a Trojan that acts to steal passwords from the infected user’s computer.

To avoid malware infection, you should check your PC’s status regularly by scanning with an endorsed antivirus program like Antivirus Plus.  By pairing your antivirus tool with an anti-spyware program like StopZilla, you can root out hidden malware files and protect yourself from identity theft.

You may also want to give your registry a clean bill of health. RegGenie comes highly recommended as a scanner that can find, fix and prevent registry errors.

Common Mspmspsv.exe Problems

Mspmspsv.exe has been noted to consume up to 1.5MB of memory when running. Because most Windows users do not use any of the SDMI features, this simply means that instead of being helpful, the mspmspsv.exe process becomes nothing more than bloatware-a term used to refer to programs that consume much larger amounts of system resources than required.

Solutions

If you are not using the features provided by the mspmspsv.exe process, it is best that you either disable or uninstall it from your computer. Let us have a look at the steps to do this.

Steps to Disable the Mspmspsv.exe Process

1. At Start > Run, type Services.msc and then press Enter.
2. Scroll down and look for the Windows Media Device Manager Pre-Message Security Protocol service.
3. Right-click and select Properties.
4. Change the startup type to Manual.
5. If you want to stop the service immediately, click the Stop button and then click OK.

Steps to Uninstall the Mspmspsv.exe Process

1. Open the Task Manager-Press the Ctrl + Alt + Del key combination or right-click the taskbar and then select Task Manager.
2. Here, search for and then select the Mspmspsv.exe process.
3. Click End Process to stop it.
4. Next, at Start > Run, type CMD and then press Enter.
5. At Command Prompt, type mspmspsv -u to uninstall the service.
6. Finally, at Start > Run, type Prefetch and then press Enter.
7. In the Prefetch folder look for Mspmspsv.exe and then delete it.

Microsoft has also identified that there are certain vulnerabilities in Windows Media Player related to the mspmspsv.exe program. The patch and instructions that address this vulnerability are available here. A previously issued patch had a file missing. Make sure that your Windows Media Player is updated regularly to reduce your security risks.