Can't instantiate COM component in C# - error 80070002

Programmer Question

I'm attempting to instantiate a Windows Media Player COM object on my machine:

Guid mediaPlayerClassId = new Guid("47ac3c2f-7033-4d47-ae81-9c94e566c4cc");
Type mediaPlayerType = Type.GetTypeFromCLSID(mediaPlayerClassId);
Activator.CreateInstance(mediaPlayerType); // <-- this line throws

When executing that last line, I get the following error:

System.IO.FileNotFoundException was caught
  Message="Retrieving the COM class factory for component with CLSID {47AC3C2F-7033-4D47-AE81-9C94E566C4CC} failed due to the following error: 80070002."
  Source="mscorlib"
  StackTrace:
       at System.RuntimeTypeHandle.CreateInstance(RuntimeType type, Boolean publicOnly, Boolean noCheck, Boolean& canBeCached, RuntimeMethodHandle& ctor, Boolean& bNeedSecurityCheck)
       at System.RuntimeType.CreateInstanceSlow(Boolean publicOnly, Boolean fillCache)
       at System.RuntimeType.CreateInstanceImpl(Boolean publicOnly, Boolean skipVisibilityChecks, Boolean fillCache)
       at System.Activator.CreateInstance(Type type, Boolean nonPublic)
       at System.Activator.CreateInstance(Type type)
       at MyStuff.PreviewFile(String filePath) in F:\Trunk\PreviewHandlerHosting\PreviewHandlerHost.cs:line 60
  InnerException:

This same code works on other developer machines and end user machines. For some reason, it only fails on my machine. What could be the cause?

Find the answer here