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How to make WMP actually open in 64 bit. (sort of)
Well I have wasted a day on this, so I might as well share it.
As you may be aware, 64 bit Windows 7 comes with both 32 and 64 bit Windows Media Player. However! for some reason, Microsoft, in their Infinite Wisdom, decided to make everything play in 32 bit only Media Player. You can change it around so that the shortcut on your Taskbar points to "Program Files" rather than "Program Files (X86)" but it will still open in 32 bit. Not only that, but you can't change Program Defaults to the 64 bit version! Effectively, the 64 bit version is just sitting there taking up space on your hard drive and not actually useful at all.
Now there used to be a simple Regfix for this with Vista, but Microsoft, again in their Infinite Wisdom have locked it out in Win 7.
Well after many hours of googling, and picking up little snippets here and there, I finally figured out how to do it.
So without further ado, here is how to make Windows 7 default to Media Player 64 bit:
1. Download "Windows Media Player Switch Script" from here: Unlock WMP x64 in Windows 7 x64 at Chris123NT's Blog
2. Extract the files to a folder of your choice and then run "set 64 bit ad default WMP" as Administrator (right click, run as Admin)
3. Reboot.
4. Now, (and this is the really fun part) Click Start>Default Programs. then click "Associate a File type or protocol with a program"
5. Go through every single Windows Media Player extension, and change it to "Windows Media Player" (Note: there will now be 2 Windows Media Player entries in the "Default Program" Window, with no way to tell the difference, the 2nd one (reading from left to right, and top to bottom, like a book) is 64 bit)
Unfortunately, there is no way to "batch change" them that I could see, you have to do every single extension by hand, singly.
I would actually not change them ALL unless you have a few hours to kill (there are alot) just change the ones for extensions you actually use.
Lastly: Unpin WMP from your taskbar, and open a music file or video, Pin the new Icon to the Taskbar, (the one that was pinned was 32 bit Media player, otherwise you end up with 2 Media Player Icons on your taskbar)
I hope it helps someone :)
2. Reboot