So you want to uninstall Windows Media Player 9? To bad. You can’t. To bad, so sad.

Microsoft's latest media software doesn't include a mechanism for uninstalling the software on Windows Millennium Edition (Me) or Windows XP operating systems. Typically software makers like Microsoft provide a simple means of uninstalling software--particularly software such as Media Player 9 Series that has yet to be officially released.

Windows Me and XP machines have to use System Restore to roll back their Windows installation to a time before they installed Media Player 9 Series if the want to uninstall it. The clunky alternative doesn't really remove all Windows Media Player 9 Series files and could potentially wipe out other system changes.

Another problem for Windows Me and XP users: If they're unable to use "System Restore" to roll back the system to an earlier state, they may be out of luck entirely.

David Caulton, a Windows Media product manager, said the uninstall issue isn't a bug or mistake: Microsoft intended the software to work that way, and the company warns people before they install the software that it's hard to get rid of it.

"We tried to make this clear on the download page. It's the method we use to get the OS back to the previous state. As with any OS component you might upgrade, everything has to go back sequentially together. If I install Windows Media Player 9 Series beta and Office, and I roll back, that would be to a pre-Office state," said Caulton. "The more users that can be informed that's the method for going back, the better," he said.

Users running Windows 98 SE or Windows 2000 can easily uninstall the media player using the operating systems' "Add or Remove Programs" feature, a typical means of getting rid of unwanted software. This option is not available on Windows Me or XP because of the media player's deep integration into the operating systems, Caulton said.

"Windows 2000 doesn't have the issues with deep media integration into the shell, the way Windows Millennium Edition and Windows XP have," Caulton said.

"This is really an OS upgrade," Caulton said of Windows Media Player 9 Series. "If you imagine a situation with an XP user who has got all these links into media capabilities...and you updated to Windows Media Player 9 Series and removed it, all those become dead links."

"That will be a real big pain for folks," Gartner analyst Michael Silver said. "With beta software, problems don't just crop up the first day. If a problem crops up in two or three weeks or a month and you have to roll back, that's going to roll back whatever else you installed in the time frame."

Some people may find good reason for going back to an early version of the media player: Windows Media Player 9 Series doesn't support older portable music devices that use serial or parallel connections. Under Windows XP, the media player does not support CD burning using Roxio's popular software. These changes are documented in the product's release notes.

In addition to these other concerns we have yet to see the full impact of MS Digital Rights Management.