Remove Windows Media Player Menu Items

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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Tags: context menu, shell, windows media player, windows tips
Categories: Knowledge, Operating Systems, Windows

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8 Responses to “Remove Windows Media Player Menu Items”

1. yair says:

   November 4, 2007 at 6:16 pm

   great, been looking for this
2. Terence Hill says:

   November 5, 2007 at 5:41 am

   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).
3. chinthaka says:

   May 5, 2008 at 5:54 am

   can any one pl let me knwo how to remove the RIGHT CLICK MENU of the Windows Media Player
   appreciate ur information
4. Ben says:

   November 9, 2008 at 10:21 am

   Thanks a lot. I used the command to unregister the DLL. Very helpful! I hate those bloated WMP features! :)
5. absolut says:

   November 18, 2008 at 11:18 pm

   NICE man I LOVE IT :)
6. Lisergi0 says:

   May 30, 2009 at 10:58 pm

   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!!

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

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   November 9, 2007 at 10:24 pm

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2. ThemePassion - Best stuff about design! » Remove Windows Media Player Menu Items says:

   November 17, 2007 at 12:51 am

   [...] ddrivehelpREMOVETHIS@gmail.com wrote an interesting post today!.Here’s a quick excerptWindows 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 … [...]