Some people like to use Windows Media Player as their default player. – However sometimes it’s necessary to play a file that WMP just isn’t able to play: It doesn’t have the codec, and the codec isn’t downloadable either. – So the user is forced to download and install a different media player just so that they can play that one file.

When they open other files that used to open in Windows Media Player, though, they open in the new player, and to add insult to injury a lot of them won’t even play in the new player. Nero Media Player supplied with Nero 7 is one such player that claims all your media files as its own on install and nominates itself as the default media player. Real Player used to be guilty of this too; but lately it asks what file types it’s allowed to play when installed.

What if this happens to you; and suddenly you find that, having installed an alternative media player, it’s set itself up as the default media player and won’t play a lot of your files having done so? – Well if your normal default media player is Windows Media Player (11) you can tell WMP to take the files back under its control.

Open Windows Media Player 11 and click on “Tools”. Click on “Options” in the drop-down box, and then click the “File Types” tab. About 3/4 of the way down on the right-hand-side of the grey box you’ll see a button marked “Select All”. Click that button and then click “Apply”: All media file types that Windows Media Player knows how to play will now open in Windows Media Player by default. You’ll notice that most media files now bear the Windows Media Player 11 icon.

Target neutralised.

The other media player that you recently installed should now only attempt to play files that WMP11 is unable to play. If it should by any chance happen to reclaim the files from WMP and attempt to set itself up as the default media player again without you telling it to do so; then you have a malicious media player, and you should uninstall it forthwith, before scanning your computer for any malware that it may have left behind on your system.