I still cant see "Hardware and Sound" In my control panel I only have 2 things that could be related to it. "Realtek HD sound effect manager" and "Sound and Audio Devices" I can't see in either of these anything to do with disabling system effects/enhancements. I have no visualization in windows media player and my computer is pretty decent, 9800GTX+, Q6600 quadcore @ 2.4GHZ, etc etc... I have used windows media player perfectly with all graphics on full and everything was lightening fast and smooth until the other day, I installed a new codec I think and maybe that has stuffed it up, but I'm not sure. Thnx for the reply.