Genie Makes Multiple Media Servers On All Win 8.1 Networked Computers
Each time you open and exit Netgear Genie it will create an instance of Media Server on all other computers in the same network that are Wifi connected regardless of whether Genie is installed on those computers. So far this only seems to happen on Windows 8 computers as my desktop is unaffected running Windows 7 but my two laptops running Win 8.1 get the duplicate Media Servers.
I checked the registry looking for a way to turn off Genie Media Service with no luck. I also checked in Windows Services section and no luck there either. Since Genie Media Service is turned on by default there's no way to prevent duplicates across the network on Windows 8 boxes unless you turn those computers off or disable the Wifi..
Perhaps a good hacker can figure out how to tame Genie's bad behavior.
Re: Genie Makes Multiple Media Servers On All Win 8.1 Networked Computers
After chatting with Netgear support explaning the issues with Netgear Genie Media Servers they concluded the issue is not with Genie, that it's an isolated issue with Windows 8 and suggested I submit a support ticket with Microsoft about it. Additionally they said they will note this case so it sounds like Netgear will look into it.
Re: Genie Makes Multiple Media Servers On All Win 8.1 Networked Computers
I downloaded and installed Genie v2.3.1.13 found here http://netgear-genie.soft32.com/old-version/ and even though this version does not include the My Share feature or support for 5ghz the same problem persists on Windows 8.1 machines with multiple instances of the Genie Media Servers in the Multimedia section of Devices and Printers. I have spent over a week trying to solve this but have finally concluded that until either Microsoft or Netgear fixes the Media Server issue it's best not to run this fabulous little Genie program if you have machines in your network running Windows 8.1.
For any interested you can also voice your concerns to Microsoft at the following location:
