In message , VanguardLH
writes:
J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
[]
See above: I didn't think I had it on. I've just checked, and in Options
| Preferences (I have version 5.61), there's a box labelled "Enable
Winamp agent", below which is the explanation "Winamp agent can maintain
your Winamp file associations and show an icon in the system tray.

Disabling this feature may result in other applications launching when
you open media files from Windows Explorer."

I do _not_ have that box ticked.

Set the filetype associations how you want. Load WinAmp. If the
filetype associations change then you know the culprit that changed them
(despite how the program is configured).

I should have thought of trying that. You are correct, it is WinAmp that
is doing it, despite that setting.

A program can get confused regarding its settings. Rather than always
read them from the registry (which is the memory copy, not the disk copy
that read into memory on Windows startup), they store them in their own
memory space or in their own config file. Toggle the setting: set it to
other than what it is now, exit and reload the program, and toggle it
back to the original setting, and exit and reload the program. When you
exit the program, make sure ALL of its processes get unloaded so they
aren't hanging onto old settings. Sounds like "agent" is a separate
process from the main GUI that you use for the program. You don't need
and don't want some superfluous process consuming memory and CPU cycles
to steal filetype associations that you don't want to get changed. If
the tray program, agent, provides both filetype stealing and other
functions, you'll lose the other functions to keep their agent process
from stealing filetype associations.

I was about to work through all that, when I noticed a much simpler
answer: as well as the "agent" tickbox, there's also a "Restore file
associations at WinAmp start-up" one! (It's rather a cluttered page, or
I hope I'd have noticed it sooner.) Unticking that, and all is well!
(And also, UAC no longer comes up when I start WinAmp, which makes
sense.)
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Imagine a world with no hypothetical situations...