Removing Windows Media Player Context Menu Items (XP Pro SP2)

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I’ve configured windows media player so that wav files open with media player classic. I did this so I could change the icon for the wav file type. I have a shortcut to media player classic in the sendto menu so I can send files directly to media player classic and have them go into the play list. As a result there are several context menu items relating to windows media player that I do not need (eg Queue-It-Up, Add to Playlist). Is there any way of getting rid of these? I searched through the registry for these items but drew a blank.

Thanks,

Chris (Hunt)

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You can make these context menu items disappear.

Open Windows Media Player (v. 8, 9 or 10), from Tools menu select Options, click File Types tab and uncheck .wav from the list. If you still see “Add to Sync list” item or similar, open MusicMatch Jukebox, QuickTime, RealPlayer, WinAmp and so on and repeat this procedure.

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Thanks for the reply. Actually I’ve never run Windows Media Player. If I launch it I get a setup screen. Is there anyway to get rid of the menu items without setting-up Windows Media Player? I don’t actually use it accept to be able to configure different icons for different file types. If I could have different icons for mp3, wav and midi files I’d be quite happy if Windows Media PLayer wasn’t on my computer at all.

Chris

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Hi again, I tried the method you suggested but unfortunately it didn’t help. The references to actions launching Windows Media Player were still in the right-click menu. However, while investigating removing Windows Media Player Completely I found a simple solution. On Add/Remove Programs there is the “Set Program Access and Defaults Button”. By unchecking the box “Enable Access to this Program” for Windows Media Player in the Choose A Default Media Player Section all the right-click references disappeared.

Chris

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Have a look at context menu editor – Google Search. There should be something there that will do what you want. Just be careful about what you remove.

Joe

--Joe

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Thanks Joe. I have ContextEdit. Unfortunately, it wasn’t showing the Windows Media Player entries. But by telling XP to ignore WMP by setting program access and defaults in add/remove programs it did what I needed – a context editor wasn’t necessary.

Chris

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or you could use The Freeware Mmm or Mmm+ to hide and manage your context menu quite beautifully.

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I actually tried that, I didn’t like the extra colourful bar on every right-click menu so I decided to uninstall. It left a lot of suspicious looking entries in the registry after I uninstalled it. I ended up restoring from a disk image just to make sure I’d gotten rid of it completely.

Chris

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