Windows Media Player skins not working

1. WMP11
2. all driver's updated
3. Avira Antivir Premium + Malewarebytes Anti-Malware

The skins files (.wmz) I'm trying to use were all DLed from the Skin Factory and are supposed to all be supported by WMP11. Basically I can use the skins on a "one time only" basis by opening my skin folder in C:/PROGRAM FILES/WMP/Skins and opening the files themselves but it reverts to a default skin as soon as you close and reopen WMP. They unfortunately don't prompt from the Apply Skin command. 

Simple skins like RAD which have been clean for the longest of time and have worked with many builds of WMP don't work either.

Well, this is an oooold thread, but I thought I'd post up a potential fix that might help out in the future.

Skins that only seem to allow a "one time use" are usually suffering from having been "blocked" by the system. Skin files are typically downloaded from a website, and are recognised as a "runnable" file (i.e. if you double-click them, they will open with a program), so the system "blocks" them as a security precaution. This means they will not be installed into WMP when you double-click them.

If you right-click the .wmz file that's blocked, you will see an "Unblock" button. Once unblocked you should be able to double-click and install the skin into WMP, and it should behave properly.

Hope that helps.

GC

I ran into this same problem.  Although I haven't figured out a solution, I did find an okay workaround, but it's only good for launching the program directly.  Instead of using a shortcut to Windows Media Player to open the program, you can use a shortcut to the skin, which will then open Media Player in that skin.  However, if you have a file type set to open with Media Player, and open a file of that type (thus indirectly launching Media Player), the player will still not open in your preferred skin, and will bring you back to full mode (and the ugly default if you select to change to skin mode) again.  This was infuriating enough to me that I chose to roll back to WMP 9 instead, in which the problem does not occur and my preferred skin is maintained. 

FYI: The problem even occurs with skins produced by Microsoft's own development team.  I ran into the problem with their "pharaoh" skin.

Try uninstalling the skins and then re-installing them, or

Try uninstalling WMP and re-installing it.

Hope this helps!

1. Which version of WMP are you using ?
2. Do you have your video drivers installed ? Install it if you don't have them installed
3. Which anti virus are you using ?