Open With Menu Odd Behavior

I seem to have a very odd problem.For some reason,when I go to right click on a video file,sometimes,within the open with menu,windows media player is not showing up.As I said,this is not this way all the time.And,the files that I'm trying to open are indeed playable by wmp.At this moment,I'm currently looking at the open with menu within the registry editor under the .flv file extension and wmplayer.exe is indeed there.So,why is it not showing up (Sometimes) in the open with menu when I right click on a .flv file ?

Perhaps you are right clicking without first selecting the video file and context menu is opening for a different file in focus.

Try selecting the file first, then right clicking.

GokAy said:

Perhaps you are right clicking without first selecting the video file and context menu is opening for a different file in focus.

Try selecting the file first, then right clicking.

Doesn't right clicking directly on the file that you wish to open negate what you're saying ?

mitchell65 said:

But Windows Media Player can't recognise a .flv file anyway. that's why the program doesn't show when you hit the Play with option. see here:



You can let WMP try to play it but It doesn't work on my system. I use VLC anyway, much the better player IMHO

Okay...so wmp doesn't recognize .flv files.It used to.I didn't used to have this problem.And,like I said,this doesn't seem to happen all the time.And,wouldn't having something like k-lite codec pack installed MAKE wmp recognize those files ? As I said...it used to.And,it does not do this all the time with these files.Hmmmmmm.

mitchell65 said:

But Windows Media Player can't recognise a .flv file anyway. that's why the program doesn't show when you hit the Play with option. see here:

You can let WMP try to play it but It doesn't work on my system. I use VLC anyway, much the better player IMHO

My Windows Media Player can play flv files. It is version 12.0.7601.18840

guitarfiend said:

mitchell65 said:

But Windows Media Player can't recognise a .flv file anyway. that's why the program doesn't show when you hit the Play with option. see here:



You can let WMP try to play it but It doesn't work on my system. I use VLC anyway, much the better player IMHO

Okay...so wmp doesn't recognize .flv files.It used to.I didn't used to have this problem.And,like I said,this doesn't seem to happen all the time.And,wouldn't having something like k-lite codec pack installed MAKE wmp recognize those files ? As I said...it used to.And,it does not do this all the time with these files.Hmmmmmm.

While recognize is the term that Microsoft uses in their popup message, it is not the best word that MS could have used. The term tends to make the user think that WMP is not capable of playing that file format. A popup telling the user that WMP is not currently configured to play FLV files would be better (IMO). Anyway, you are correct, installing a codec pack (like K-LITE) should offer to configure WMP to handle FLV files. In fact, I'll issue a challenge to anyone reading this: show me a link to a media file format* that you cannot get to play with WMP and the codecs from K-LITE mega. I've not come across one yet.

*a file format that you came across due to an actual need to play that file format. You can look at the list of file formats that K-LITE codecs does not currently support and present that as the answer to my challenge... but that is not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about a real life need to play a given file format.


Now, to address your issue of the Open with context menu:
Have you tried re-installing the codecs from K-LITE?

The reason that I ask is:
I have shortcuts on my desktop for WMP 32bit, WMP 64bit, MPC** 32bit, MPC 64bit, VLC and other players. I drag/drop the file of interest onto the desired shortcut. It is rare that I use WMP, but when I do, I'm sometimes greeted with the screen that you see the very first time that you use WMP (I'm guessing that this is due to an update of WMP - I've not bothered to confirm the cause). When I see that screen, I know to expect that Windows (or WMP) will remove both of my WMP desktop shortcuts without asking me and will make WMP the default player for all of my media file types. After I have played the file of interest via WMP, I download/install the latest K-LITE codec pack to fix the things that Windows (or WMP) broke.


**MPC 64bit (Media Player Classic) via K-LITE is my default app because I often step thru videos frame by frame.


While we are on the topic of the Open with context menu: by default, Windows 7 puts an exclusion on that context menu for MOV files. But WMP will play MOV files - if properly configured to do so.



This exclusion appears in a number of places in the registry. It is part of the reason why I don't use the Open with context menu. With enough effort, I could probably remove the exclusion, but the Open with context menu still does not lend itself to selecting WPM 64bit.


Having said all of that, let me try and head off any discussion about K-LITE codecs or which player is the best. Those type of discussions are like "which antivirus app is the best". I'm not a media expert. There are plenty of things that I don't have a clue about when it comes to media files. The K-LITE codecs (which some people hate) might not be the best codecs out there. They simply meet my needs and have never caused a problem (as far as I know).