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Display Name (?):

WMDM PMSP Service

Short Name (?):

Executable (?):

Library (?):

Depends On (?):

Supports (?):

None.

Description (?):

None.

OS (?):

Vista Home/Business

Startup (?):

Default	Home	Workstation	Server	Minimal	Tweaked	Automatic
Manual	Manual	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled

Explanation (?):

The WMDM PMSP service stands for Windows Media Device Manage Pre-Message Security Protocol and is a Windows Media Format SDK feature. An earlier version of Windows Media Player, version 7 to be exact, installed this to be compliant with the secure digital music initiative (SDMI). This is a digital rights management (DRM) system that never made it, and thankfully so. This service is not used in the playback of such secure media types though, and rather is used in the packaging of a music file with the DRM abilities of the SDMI.

In more normal terms this service is used in making encrypted multimedia files so you can only play the multimedia files under the conditions of the provider. This is accomplished by programs only allowing to play, or only knowing how to encrypt the file for playback, if they follow the specifications of the initiative. The various interested industries involved in this hoped this would stop piracy of music on the Internet, or at least provide a legal avenue for distribution. A similar technology can be seen on the Apple iPod with the AAC format. As with all technologies though, this security feature can be broken, but violates the digital millennium copyright act on grounds of reverse engineering.

This service can be safely disabled since you most likely don't have any SDMI enabled multimedia files. However, there is no reason to set this to disabled over manual since it only activates when required. My recommendation would be to upgrade to the newest version of Windows Media Player. It gets rid of this service, but not because it gets rid of DRM, but instead uses different technologies.