Windows Media Player adds context items to the right-click menu of several multimedia files even if you do not use this player to play those files. It would be nice to get rid of those items in the context menu to decrease the size of the menu and have only options in there that are needed. There is however no obvious option to remove the three entries which means that we once again have to rely on the Registry to fix this issue.
The three items of Windows Media Player that I’m talking about are a) Add to Burn List, b) Add to Windows Media Player Player List and c) Play with Windows Media Player.
Do the following to remove the Windows Media Player menu items: Press Windows R, type in regedit32 and hit enter. Now navigate to the following keys in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Clsid\. I would suggest to make a backup of the keys before deleting them. To backup a registry key you right-click it and select Export from the menu.
a) {8DD448E6-C188-4aed-AF92-44956194EB1F}
b) {F1B9284F-E9DC-4e68-9D7E-42362A59F0FD}
c) {CE3FB1D1-02AE-4a5f-A6E9-D9F1B4073E6C}
Changes will take effect immediately and can be tested by right-clicking a multimedia file like a video. Another working method would be to unregister the wmpshell.dll which is used to provide the context menu items. This is probably the easier method.
Press Windows R, type in regsvr32 /u wmpshell.dll, hit enter
To register it again you do the following:
Press Windows R, type in regsvr32 wmpshell.dll, hit enter
Those changes take effect immediately as well.
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great, been looking for this
One time, I was becoming crazy trying to delete those context items from the registry.
Well the solution regsvr32 /u wmpshell.dll is perfect.
However, for these needs the program
ShellExView v1.18 – Shell Extensions Manager
is very useful. Related to this is ShellMenuView from the same author (http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/index.html).
can any one pl let me knwo how to remove the RIGHT CLICK MENU of the Windows Media Player
appreciate ur information
Thanks a lot. I used the command to unregister the DLL. Very helpful! I hate those bloated WMP features! :)
NICE man I LOVE IT :)
This key is wrong (you missed a ’2′ in the last part)
{F1B9284F-E9DC-4e68-9D7E-4236A59F0FD}
Remove this key instead:
{F1B9284F-E9DC-4e68-9D7E-42362A59F0FD}
It worked all perfect, i also unregistered the DLL (just in case).
thaxxx!!
Remember that you need admin rights to remove the service.
Uh…this doesnt really completely remove it. I still have the “add to windows media player list” in the right click meny
Any way to remove the Play Audio-CD with WMP option in the Autoplay dialog that comes up when you insert a cd?
I’ve already succesfully removed others by deleting them from the Autoplay\EventHandlers registry section.
Also, to add entries, you can use TweakUI, see here:
http://lifehacker.com/371677/add-custom-options-to-the-windows-autoplay-dialog
or by hand:
http://windows.ittoolbox.com/groups/technical-functional/windows-xp-pro-l/changing-autoplay-options-297534