Removing WMP Context Menus

The only way I can figure this out is to disable access to WMP in custom
Default programs. But that also disables WMP as a CD or DVD autoplay option.
How can I disable or remove the "Add to WMP" and "Play with WMP" context
menu items? I've googled away on this with no success!

Oreally

"OREALLY" wrote in message
...
The only way I can figure this out is to disable access to WMP in custom
Default programs. But that also disables WMP as a CD or DVD autoplay
option. How can I disable or remove the "Add to WMP" and "Play with WMP"
context menu items? I've googled away on this with no success!

Oreally

There are a couple of utilities from NirSoft that may help you out,
ShellExView http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shexview.html and ShellMenuView
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shell_menu_view.html.
They are a little involved, but fairly simple to figure out. Plus whatever
you do can be undone (or at least it was for me). I used it to get rid of
all the WinAmp menu items on right-click. It seemed to take over everything
:-(
--
SC Tom

In addition to what SC Tom advised, if you're
comfortable with Regedit you can change many
things about file behavior in Explorer.

If you look under HKCR you'll see each registered
file type has a key, like .txt. Each of those keys
points to a class name. (.txt usually points to
HKCR\txtfile.) All behaviors for a registered file
type are under those two keys. Many are
self-explanatory. There's also a key for all files,*,
and keys for Folder and Directory.

Items under the subkey "shell" will appear at
the top of the context menu, above the first
divider line. Those items are typically "Open with"
or "Edit with". (The useful addition Open with
Notepad is created by adding such a key under
HKCR\*.)

Items under HKCR\[extension]\shellex point to
shell extensions -- small applets that tie into
Windows Explorer. Items under that key appear
in the second section of the context menu.
Explorer checks those two keys when you right-click
a file. For WMA files, for instance, it will check
both HKCR\.wma and HKCR\*.

You're probably dealing with shell extensions.
If Media Player is behaving then what you're
looking for is probably under
HKCR\[.ext]\ContextMenuHandlers
(But don't count on it. Microsoft makes rules
for others, not for themselves.)

Once you find that key there's a problem. Shell
extensions are loaded via a GUID (a unique number
displayed in hexadecimal format). To find out what
the GUID means you have to look under HKCR\CLSID\.
There you should find a key with "Server" in the name.
(InProcServer32, LocalServer32, etc.) That key
will point to the actual executable that gets
loaded to provide the shell extension behavior.

So.... you look up the relevant file extensions,
look at the shell and shellex subkeys, and if you're
hesitant to remove all shell extension behavior
you can look up any GUIDs to figure out what each
extension is doing. (Though even that lookup may
not always tell you exactly what you want to know.
It's designed for Explorer to read, not to provide
information. It's not easy to make sense of it all
if you don't have some experience dealing with
COM.)

I always remove Microsoft's Media Player spyware
as part of my initial cleanup of a Windows install,
and I have WMA files assigned to VLC Media
Player, so I don't have any relevant entries to
check in my own Registry, but you should be able
to work it out if you look under the file extension
keys in question. (There will be multiple keys, for
each file extension you've assigned [or rather,
Microsoft has assigned] to WMP.)

I've tried both approaches. WMP context menus for these items are not
available in either ShellView utility. In the registry you cannot delete or
modify them. You get an error message indicating that the key cannot be
changed!

Oreally



"Mayayana" wrote in message ...

In addition to what SC Tom advised, if you're
comfortable with Regedit you can change many
things about file behavior in Explorer.

If you look under HKCR you'll see each registered
file type has a key, like .txt. Each of those keys
points to a class name. (.txt usually points to
HKCR\txtfile.) All behaviors for a registered file
type are under those two keys. Many are
self-explanatory. There's also a key for all files,*,
and keys for Folder and Directory.

Items under the subkey "shell" will appear at
the top of the context menu, above the first
divider line. Those items are typically "Open with"
or "Edit with". (The useful addition Open with
Notepad is created by adding such a key under
HKCR\*.)

Items under HKCR\[extension]\shellex point to
shell extensions -- small applets that tie into
Windows Explorer. Items under that key appear
in the second section of the context menu.
Explorer checks those two keys when you right-click
a file. For WMA files, for instance, it will check
both HKCR\.wma and HKCR\*.

You're probably dealing with shell extensions.
If Media Player is behaving then what you're
looking for is probably under
HKCR\[.ext]\ContextMenuHandlers
(But don't count on it. Microsoft makes rules
for others, not for themselves.)

Once you find that key there's a problem. Shell
extensions are loaded via a GUID (a unique number
displayed in hexadecimal format). To find out what
the GUID means you have to look under HKCR\CLSID\.
There you should find a key with "Server" in the name.
(InProcServer32, LocalServer32, etc.) That key
will point to the actual executable that gets
loaded to provide the shell extension behavior.

So.... you look up the relevant file extensions,
look at the shell and shellex subkeys, and if you're
hesitant to remove all shell extension behavior
you can look up any GUIDs to figure out what each
extension is doing. (Though even that lookup may
not always tell you exactly what you want to know.
It's designed for Explorer to read, not to provide
information. It's not easy to make sense of it all
if you don't have some experience dealing with
COM.)

I always remove Microsoft's Media Player spyware
as part of my initial cleanup of a Windows install,
and I have WMA files assigned to VLC Media
Player, so I don't have any relevant entries to
check in my own Registry, but you should be able
to work it out if you look under the file extension
keys in question. (There will be multiple keys, for
each file extension you've assigned [or rather,
Microsoft has assigned] to WMP.)

| I've tried both approaches. WMP context menus for these items are not
| available in either ShellView utility. In the registry you cannot delete
or
| modify them. You get an error message indicating that the key cannot be
| changed!
|
Interesting. Win7 is such a pain. I guess your
options would be to log on as the real
Administrator, or, logged on as a "fake admin",
take ownership of the key and then change
the restrictions. That works programmatically,
via Win API, but I'm not certain whether you
can do it via Explorer.

The first thing I did when I started playing
with Win7 was to write a program that will
remove *any* restriction from *anything*,
for *anyone*. It works for all files and folders,
and I've used the same code for Registry keys,
but I didn't bother putting that functionality
into the program. That program is here, with
some background info provided (but it won't
solve this particular problem):

http://www.jsware.net/jsware/nt6fix.php5#restfix

The IT people use a combination of Takeown
and cacls, two pain-in-the-neck console
applets that Microsoft provides, but looking up
Takeown I don't see any mention of Registry
keys. So....

You could try he

http://www.howtogeek.com/77878/take-...Speed=noscript

That might work. The system is very convoluted
and not at all intuitive. It's an example of Microsoft's
approach of security through abstruseness.
As a fake admin you don't actually have the "right"
to have write/delete access to some things, but
you can take ownership of anything. If you own
it you can remove restrictions.

To put it another way, you're a serf with the title of
Lord. You're not a real Lord, so you can't hunt on your
own land. You only own the land on paper. King Gates
actually controls it. But, if you know some secret
incantations you give yourself temporary ownership of
the land that already belongs to you. Having ownership,
you then give yourself permission to hunt on your own
land, then give back the ownership you borrowed from
yourself, and then, finally, you can go a-hunting.
Piece o' cake. It's technology that Rube Goldberg
would envy.

"OREALLY" wrote in message ...
I've tried both approaches. WMP context menus for these items are not available in either
ShellView utility. In the registry you cannot delete or modify them. You get an error message
indicating that the key cannot be changed!


The folder context menus 'Add to Windows Media playlist' and 'Play with Windows Media Player'
seem to have various triggers.
If the folder is in My Music, My Videos etc. then they appear.
If you drag a folder of media files onto the Desktop the menus only appear if the folder
has been Customized for music, video ect.

On the Desktop, if you right-click a folder Properties Customize 'Optimize this folder for
General items'
the menus don't appear.

Doesn't really help with your problem though.

I got curious about this and started looking around
at Windows API options. In the course of things I
came across this:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/w...e-89637e0dacae

It's the same instructions that were at the howtogeek
page I linked, with one exception. The last line notes that
you might need to ignore messages saying you can't do it. (!)
People in the thread were apparently misled by confusing
Regedit mesages implying that the operation couldn't work.
Some nice, concise instructions from that page:

--------------------------------------------
First be sure you run RegEdit as Administrator

Right click the key in the left hand pane ... select permissions from the
context menu

In the permissions dialog, click the advanced button.

In the advanced security settings dialog switch to the Owner tab

I assume your usercode is a member of the local Administrators group

Click the Replace owner on subcontainers and objects box.

If Administrators is NOT the owner, select it in the change owner to
box...press Apply...OK.

You are now back at the Permissions dialog box.

Select Administrators and give them Full control by selecting the Full
Control checkbox in the Allow column...press Apply ... Ok

It has been a while since I have had to do this ... so I might be off a
little on the steps.

The key is IGNORE any messages that say you don't have enought rights...
-------------------------------------------

WELL PUT!

"Mayayana" wrote in message ...

| I've tried both approaches. WMP context menus for these items are not
| available in either ShellView utility. In the registry you cannot delete
or
| modify them. You get an error message indicating that the key cannot be
| changed!
|
Interesting. Win7 is such a pain. I guess your
options would be to log on as the real
Administrator, or, logged on as a "fake admin",
take ownership of the key and then change
the restrictions. That works programmatically,
via Win API, but I'm not certain whether you
can do it via Explorer.

The first thing I did when I started playing
with Win7 was to write a program that will
remove *any* restriction from *anything*,
for *anyone*. It works for all files and folders,
and I've used the same code for Registry keys,
but I didn't bother putting that functionality
into the program. That program is here, with
some background info provided (but it won't
solve this particular problem):

http://www.jsware.net/jsware/nt6fix.php5#restfix

The IT people use a combination of Takeown
and cacls, two pain-in-the-neck console
applets that Microsoft provides, but looking up
Takeown I don't see any mention of Registry
keys. So....

You could try he

http://www.howtogeek.com/77878/take-...Speed=noscript

That might work. The system is very convoluted
and not at all intuitive. It's an example of Microsoft's
approach of security through abstruseness.
As a fake admin you don't actually have the "right"
to have write/delete access to some things, but
you can take ownership of anything. If you own
it you can remove restrictions.

To put it another way, you're a serf with the title of
Lord. You're not a real Lord, so you can't hunt on your
own land. You only own the land on paper. King Gates
actually controls it. But, if you know some secret
incantations you give yourself temporary ownership of
the land that already belongs to you. Having ownership,
you then give yourself permission to hunt on your own
land, then give back the ownership you borrowed from
yourself, and then, finally, you can go a-hunting.
Piece o' cake. It's technology that Rube Goldberg
would envy.

In message , OREALLY
writes:
WELL PUT!

"Mayayana" wrote in message ...

| I've tried both approaches. WMP context menus for these items are not
| available in either ShellView utility. In the registry you cannot delete
or
| modify them. You get an error message indicating that the key cannot be
| changed!
|
Interesting. Win7 is such a pain. I guess your
options would be to log on as the real
[]
Unfortunately, your post _wasn't_ well put: you're using Windows Live
Mail v15 or later (actually 16.x), which can't do quoting properly: for
example, in the above, the "Well PUT!" and the "Interesting ..." look as
if they were written by the same people.

There _is_ supposed to be a fix for WLM15+; I don't know if it works.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

How do you govern a country that seems to have decided that facts are the work
of the devil? - Andy Hamilton on HIGNFY, 2010

In message , FredW
writes:
On Mon, 16 Feb 2015 22:43:15 +0000, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
wrote:
[]
Unfortunately, your post _wasn't_ well put: you're using Windows Live
Mail v15 or later (actually 16.x), which can't do quoting properly: for
example, in the above, the "Well PUT!" and the "Interesting ..." look as
if they were written by the same people.

There _is_ supposed to be a fix for WLM15+; I don't know if it works.

- quote -
But now we have Windows 7, we have no more Outlook Express. Instead, we
have Windows Live Mail, and we have trouble with it. It is a not too bad

It is the default (I am led to believe) if you go to Microsoft looking
for a news (or mail) client. But we also have Thunderbird and many
others!

newsreader, apparently, but it is a terrible newswriter! It is
completely and blissfully unaware of all the common Usenet practices,
like bottom posting, cutting off quoted signatures, indenting with quote
character, inserting signatures... As if Microsoft is purposely killing
Usenet! Yet, all of it doesn't prevent people from using it to post
Usenet messages with it.

The "MS trying to kill usenet" has been suggested before. I'm pretty
sure they don't like the fact that they have little (or no) control over
it; whether they're actively trying to kill it, my opinion varies along
with the thickness of the tinfoil in my hat.

As for not preventing people using it to post, well, no it doesn't, but
I'm led to believe that quite a lot of _readers_ end up killfiling
people who use it, so their posts won't get as widely read. But of
course they probably won't know they've been killfiled.

It shouldn't bother me, as I don't use Windows Live Mail, but it does.
I have to struggle to read and follow terribly formatted messages.
- unquote -

- QuoteFix WLM
http://www.dusko-lolic.from.hr/wlmquote/

(Does that still work with recent versions of WLM?)
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

when people say they're perfectly happy without children, we don't have to
presume they're lying! - Paul Dolan, RT 2015/1/3-9