n00b question, making this your default media player...

[Shawzy]

Hey i am on XP and just totally forgot how to change your default media player, so that everything opens with VLC instead of windows media player or winamp..

[zcot]

the way to change your default media player is to unassociate those file-types that the player has been associated with. The operating system(XP) keeps an association of file types so that it knows what action to take when you use that file. So, unassociating the current file-associations will disable the default. Next you'd want to create some associations of your own to get VLC on the action.

check the wiki site.. -find the link for 'Windows":
http://wiki.videolan.org/index.php

If you have any trouble I'd be glad to offer suggestions.

[One Eye Ry]

Hi there,

Please excuse my total n00bness!

But I have tried making VLC my default media player by going to "Set program access & defaults" , then going to "Custom", disableing the Windows Media Player & Quicktime. I just leave it as "Use my current Mediaplayer" (as there are no other options), but it keeps using Nero Showtime 2 !

I tried to follow the link to the Wiki site you suggested above, but found the solution they offer a bit hard to follow.

Mainly the " Modify the strings C:\\Programs\\VideoLAN\\VLC\\vlc.exe to match to your VLC installation." part!

Can you tell me how to modify strings? I'm pretty sure it's in "regedit", but I don't know what to do once I find C:\\Programs\\VideoLAN\\VLC\\vlc.exe in there! I select "Modify" on it in there, an it just comes up with something that says "New Entry"... or something like that. Where do I paste the HKEY entries they had me copy? Or do I?

[zcot]

One Eye Ry,

The instructions from the wiki page don't talk about using regedit. They are the instructions on how to create a script file that will do all of the associations at once, as this is much easier than manually working in the registry for each and every item.

The wiki suggestion is like this:

1. Open a text editor like Notepad.

2. Copy this text, and paste into notepad:

[....]

3. Modify the strings C:\\Programs\\VideoLAN\\VLC\\vlc.exe to match to your VLC installation.

4. Save As "vlc.reg"(note the .reg extension).

5 Execute the vlc.reg file using a double-click(this adds it to your registry).

To expand on the detail of this:

notes:

Any string modification is done in the script file you create in notepad(which you could name "associateVLCFileTypes.reg" or "vlc.reg" or "anything.reg"). The modifications are done from within notepad.

-you can right-click the .reg file and select [edit] if you need to do some editing later.

-after you "execute" the .reg script file it is not a relevant file any longer(the info has been exchanged to the registry), you could delete it.

A ".reg" extension has a file association with the regedit program, so when you are ready to implement the script you can double-click it, and the regedit program will "Merge" that script info into the system registry. You will then have file associations for VLC so you can double-click those file types to run them in VLC.

Editing the path info is important. If you do not do this properly then the file associations will not work. The syntax of the file path is important due to how the regedit program parses the .reg script. Alternatively, once the script is Merge'ed into the registy, each path string could be manually changed using regedit, or you can just change the script file and then re-Merge it again to overwrite the previous info.

For this script entry(creating a 'DefaultIcon' key under the 'HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\VlcFile' key, and placing a default string with the value of "C:\Programs\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe,0" under that key):

Code: Select all

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\VlcFile\DefaultIcon] @="C:\\Programs\\VideoLAN\\VLC\\vlc.exe,0"

..this needs to be the program path(harddrive location) to the vlc program file. The part that would need to be changed is noted like this:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\VlcFile\DefaultIcon]
@="C:\\Programs\\VideoLAN\\VLC\\vlc.exe,0"

..and the double-backslashes are required, so the real path:

C:\Programs\VideoLAN\VLC\

becomes:

Code: Select all

C:\\Programs\\VideoLAN\\VLC\\

Hence, my script would be exactly like this(based on where I installed VLC):

Code: Select all

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\VlcFile\DefaultIcon] @="C:\\VLC82\\vlc.exe,0"

If I wanted to manually go into the registry via regedit, and change this value I would open regedit and keep expanding the keys -> HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT -> VlcFile -> DefaultIcon until I was able to see the default(@ from the script) string value C:\VLC82\vlc.exe,0 (C:\\VLC82\\vlc.exe,0 from the script) in the right-hand pane.

double-click 'default' and then edit the string entry to this:

Code: Select all

C:\VLC82\vlc.exe,0

(noting the single backslashes since this is not an interpreted script but the actual command in the registry)
..and then click Okay, then close regedit

The same posture should be observed for the other entry whether it is dealt with in a .reg script or from within regedit:

Code: Select all

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\VlcFile\shell\Open] [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\VlcFile\shell\Open\command] @="C:\\Programs\\VideoLAN\\VLC\\vlc.exe \"%L\""

In the script the changed part will be:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\VlcFile\shell\Open]
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\VlcFile\shell\Open\command]
@="C:\\VLC82\\vlc.exe \"%L\""

From within regedit:
this:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT -> VlcFile -> shell-> Open -> default -> C:\Programs\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe "%L"
will be changed to this:
C:\VLC82\vlc.exe "%L"

Further notes:
-if you make the reg script and then "don't know where it is, or where it went", you can just search for it ( [Start] -> [Search] -> [Files and Folders] -> [vlc.reg] or [*.reg] to find all .reg files on the computer)

-if you don't know where VLC is, or has been installed, or "went to".. then search for it, don't get stumped.

-once the script is Merge'ed into the registy, you can just change the script file and then re-Merge it again to overwrite the previous info.

[One Eye Ry]

That worked!

My God, you sure know what you're doing!

I aspire to be as knowledgeable as you.

Thank you so much.

[Guest]

Is there a way to do the same for directories ?

I mean, like does winamp and other windows player: we right click on the directory name, and there is a contextual menu entry to add the directory content in the current playlist.
This is very usefull to create on the fly playlists from music albums.

[zcot]

yes, there is a way to implement a right-click context menu item on a folder.. -however:

-you can drag a folder to vlc and the contents will be added to the playlist..

-you can select a whole folder from the vlc [File] -> [Open Directory] command.. adding it to the playlist.

-and you can put a shortcut in the SendTo system folder, which would allow a [right-click on a file or folder] -> [Send To] -> vlc shortcut..

[r4wmunt34q]

Hi guys,

Im sorry, but I cant find the article you are refering to which contains instructions for creating vlc.reg. Can you post the code here please?

I bought a new Microsoft keyboard (natural ergonomic 4000) recently and when I assign a video file to a shortcut key, it plays it in a media program set in "Program Access and defaults", no matter what program I set to open the .avi extension. And in program access and defaults, it shows only winamp, media monkey and windows media player, no vlc. So I need to put it there, I just dont yet know how. I appreciate any amount of help, thank you.

r4w