media player association in IE

[rocknrollstar]

Hi, tomorrow I need to get the children finding wav audio files on the internet. Having just logged into the school system remotely, I see that clicking on a wav link on a web page then loads up a new webpage with the QuickTime player bar. Annoyingly it also checks for an update, which can crash the browser.

What I want to do is set it so that clicking on a wav link opens up Windows Media Player (in it's own programme window) and plays the file, leaving the original web page there, so not having to press the back button to get back to it.

What's the easiest way to reset a file association so that clicking on a wav link opens up the file in WMP? I don't want to visit each machine, and ideally want to keep WMP. I can add some lines to a login script (just don't know what to add), or do something via gpo, or alternatives welcome.

Many thanks!

[Michael]

You should be able to put this in a logon script:

ftype wavfile="C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmplayer.exe" "%1"
assoc .wav=wavfile

[rocknrollstar]

Thanks for your reply Michael. I've put that in a login script. It works if I have a wav file saved on the desktop (i.e. it will then play in WMP).

However, if I click on a link to a wav file on a webpage in IE7, it still loads up in QuickTime as shown in the attachment.

I guess this is an IE7 thing? Or is there a way to remove an association from Quicktime?

Thanks again.

[SYNACK]

It is the mime types that have been registered to quicktime, there are several manual solutions, an automated one should be doable though:

perform these steps on a pc for wav:
How Do I change File Association Types in IE7?

then copy the changed regestry keys and quicktime config files as specified for wav:
How to amend the MIME settings in Quicktime?

then push out the registry change and new file via a script. Or easier still capture the changes to an MSI and then just deploy that.

[Michael]

As a temporary workaround, can you not save a copy of the WAV file on a network drive?

Longterm I agree with Synack - probably a registry fix should be the easiest way to resolve this association problem.

[redsnappa]

Uninstall quicktime.

[tomdawson]

Hey guys.

I'm looking to do a very similar thing, we're developing a Multimedia Library type thing, literally just a link to the MP3, WAV or WMV file.

All was going fine, tested it logged on as a test teacher account on about 5 different machines in different locations with different pieces of software (and different versions of Media Player actually) and it all went perfectly. Click the link in Internet Explorer, WMP launches and starts to play the video or mp3 file. Great I thought.

Until...

Tried the 6th machine, and it decides to actually start downloading the file whereas all of the other machines streamed the content to media player.

Do we reckon that the code Michael posted above will help with my problem too? Or do I need to look at MIME-types for this? Any suggestions welcome

[SYNACK]

Tried the 6th machine, and it decides to actually start downloading the file whereas all of the other machines streamed the content to media player.

Do we reckon that the code Michael posted above will help with my problem too? Or do I need to look at MIME-types for this? Any suggestions welcome

Seporate issue all together, this is a registry setting that is specific to IE and is set per user. For this one you need to make sure that mp3s etc are not tagged to be saved. This page outlines it and even has a tool (untested) to wipe out those assosiations which could be of some help.

Reset Open/Save Choice for Internet Explorer Downloads in Vista :: the How-To Geek

There is a registry setting that controls the list of which files you've chosen to automatically open, which means if you uncheck this box the default will be to always open the file, which is why you don't get the option to save the files anymore.



Manual Registry Hack

To manually make this change, we need to open up regedit.exe through the start menu search box, and then browse down to the following search key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell \
AttachmentExecute\{0002DF01-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}

Once there, you'll notice keys in the right-hand pane for each file type. To reset the setting for each, just delete that particular one from the list. The changes will be immediate.

It says its for Vista but the reg keys are the same in both instances.

[tomdawson]

Seporate issue all together, this is a registry setting that is specific to IE and is set per user.

It's just strange though, because I was logging on to each of the machines as the same user, our test teacher, can't see why it would suddenly jump to downloading in stead of streaming?

Nevertheless, I'll give that a go tomorrow morning and let you know how I get on

[tomdawson]

Hello. Me again. Sorry for the slow reply.

I cannot find this registry key at all. CURRENT USER/SOFTWARE/MICROSOFT/WINDOWS/SHELL only has BagMRU...and I have no idea what that is.

I also tried using the registry file from the site to modify the settings but it didn't help.

Can you point me in the right direction?

Need to make IE *always* open .WMV and .WAV and .MP3 in Windows Media Player, don't want it saving the file to the user's area.

Any suggestions welcome