Open with... impossible

[innergetic]

Hi, hope you can help me.

I've recently switched to Vista, and I'm having issues since then:
I put VLC on my computer
associated file types etc.
But VLC does not appear in the context menues.

So I tried linking files manually via "open with". However, after doing so, VLC does not appear in the list of programs (only WMP and Winamp).
Starting VLC manually and playing files via drag and drop works fine, just a bit cumbersome.

I'd appreciate any help on this issue. Thank you.

[VLC_help]

You installed VLC with context menu support?

[innergetic]

install? I unpacked it, configured it, told it to associate with media files.
Is there anything else I have to do?

[Arite]

If you want context menus such as "Play with VLC media player" when you right-click a file you need to install it. This also applies for "Open With... >> VLC media player" as AFAIK without registering VLC media player in the registry Windows Explorer won't know about it.

So download the *.exe Installer version (you don't need to install it Program Files if you want it somewhere else) from here:
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

And in the "Choose Components" section of the installer wizard tick "Context menus" if you want the "Play with...", and set the "File Associations" etc. too.

Arite.

[innergetic]

omg, how embarrassing...that does the trick.
I actually thought i was smart enough to install on me own.
Stupid me, thanks for the support

[a1akazam]

I have had the same problem, except I installed everything. When I try to choose defaults, the dialog box disappears and only quicktime and windows media player are left. What should I do then?

[Arite]

Did you have "Context menus" and the appropriate "File Associations" enabled in the installer?

Arite.

[a1akazam]

Yes. Any files previously associated with VLC player are now associated with the installer, and I cannot change that. The only way I can play files is by dragging the file to a shortcut and that is tedious.

[Arite]

So you have VLC in a different place to where the installer installed it to/you want to use a different location for VLC? If so, uninstall VLC and reinstall it to that location. Once you have done that (perhaps after a restart) all the files should be associated with VLC in the place you installed it to.

Arite.

[a1akazam]

Thank you so much