WindowsMedia Player

[joanna626]

When I click on a Winamp Internet Radio Windows Media player opens up and does not recoginze Winamp
I cannot even find the damn Windows Media in Control Panel delete programs to delete - I want to make Winamp the default player???? How do I GET RID OF WINDOWS?

Windows XP

[Nunzio390]

Welcome to the forums, joanna626

First, do you realize that you've posted for Winamp3 help in a Winamp3 Tech Support "soon-to-be-archived-for-legacy-support-only" forum? Winamp3 is a dead project (over a year old) and the Winamp3 download will most likely be removed from Winamp.com on Monday, December 15th (in just 2 days). I really suggest that you uninstall it now and instead install Winamp 5.0, but we'll talk about that later on.

For now, on to your problem...

WinXP? Can't find a way to uninstall WMP in Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs?

Well then, I wouldn't worry too much about uninstalling it if I were you.

Without knowing it you have probably accepted Microsoft's "forced" upgrade to WMP v9 which kinda made it part of your op sys now, and uninstalling will be problematic at best, if not impossible, even if you wanted to do it (it won't be listed in Add/Remove Programs). I'm running WinXP Pro but never went ahead with that lousy upgrade and still have WMP v8.1 and will never ever upgrade. Read more about this in this article > Windows Media Player 9--no uninstall? . I think you may be "stuck" with WMP v9 now. Sorry.

OK. Let's try this ...

Close Winamp3. Next, completely empty your internet cache...

Internet Explorer:
Tools > Internet Options> General tab > Temporary Internet Files > "Delete Files" button

Netscape:
Edit > Preferences > Double-click "Advanced" to expand it > Cache > "Clear Disk Cache" button

Next, double-check to make sure file type associations are taken away from WMP and also correctly reassigned to Winamp3...

Now, locate Windows Media Player on your system. It's "usually" in your C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\ folder, and should be named wmplayer.exe. If it's not in that folder, then perform a search in WinXP for it... START button > Search > All files and folders > wmplayer.exe

Once found, double-click wmplayer.exe to open Windows Media Player. Once it opens, de-select the file types that you would rather have Winamp3 play: Tools > Options > File Types tab

UNcheck the media file types that you no longer want WMP to play and instead want Winamp3 to play. Press the Apply button and then the OK button. Close WMP.

Open Winamp3. In Winamp3, select the file types you want Winamp3 to play:

Press CTRL+P to bring up Preferences window > System > Media

Under "Preferred Media" select/highlight the file types you would like Winamp3 to play from the list. If you want Winamp3 to be your "default" media player, then press the ALL button, but at the very least, select M3U and PLS file types (Nullsoft SHOUTcast radio uses the PLS file type)

Under "Protect Associations" checkmark "Register types on Winamp start". Checkmark "Maintain media type settings". For good measure checkmark "Enable Winamp Agent", to prevent other players (eg: Windows Media Player) from stealing back file associations. Close and then restart Winamp3 to allow all changes to take effect (preferences are saved upon a successful/proper shutdown and restart of Winamp3).
________________________________________________________________

Now, if you do everything I just wrote above, then all "should" work well for you in Winamp3 (even if you can't get rid of Windows Media Player).

BUT....

There is a Sticky thread at the very top of this forum that is entitled Winamp3 Is Dead, Upgrade To Winamp 5. I think it's very likely that you had never read it, based on the fact that you've posted here for help with Winamp3.

Partial quote from the Sticky...

If you are having any problem with winamp3 whatsoever, we strongly recommend you upgrade to the Winamp 5 release candidate, it will most likely solve any problem you are having.

In addition, I'm also obligated to tell you that Winamp3 is now effectively dead (although Wasabi development "should" continue - maybe not though) and Winamp3 will be removed from Winamp.com very soon (probably December 15th - in just 2 days). All Winamp3 forums (including this one) will be locked and archived for read-only purposes (legacy support). We will no longer actively support Winamp3.

So, I highly recommend that since you are indeed having problems, that you do what was suggested in the Sticky thread I linked to above for you... uninstall Winamp3 and then download Winamp 5.0. When you download Winamp 5.0, go ahead and download a current release candidate of Winamp 5.0 (until the final public release comes out, at which time you can upgrade). The LATEST release candidate of Winamp 5.0 is now available. This will "probably" be the last one offered for download in the forums until Winamp Final is officially publicly released.

Get it here > Winamp 5.0rc666 here