Member Avatar for actfray

A friend of mine recently hooked up his computer and decided to use Mozilla Firefox as his browser instead if IE. Originally, Windows Media Player was his default audio and video player, but then he downloaded Quicktime in order to view another video. Now his computer will only allow Quicktime to play all his media.

Because he uses Firefox, clicking on TOOLs and then OPTIONS does not access the 'files' option (as it does with IE).

How can I fix this so WMP will be the default?

Thanks!

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by Kintak

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Building on points from and , the situation described (QuickTime uninstalled but Firefox/Windows still reporting a “QuickTime plug‑in” error) is usually caused by leftover browser plugin files or a stale Firefox plugin cache, plus one or more file types still tied to QuickTime. The following targeted steps remove those leftovers and restore Windows Media Player as the handler without repeating earlier suggestions.

Close Firefox, then remove Firefox’s plugin cache so it rescans installed plugins: open Explorer and go to
%APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile folder>\
and delete the file named pluginreg.dat (Firefox will recreate it). Next, check the Firefox program folder (e.g., C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\plugins) and the QuickTime install folders for any QuickTime plugin files (look for names containing “quicktime” or “qt” — common browser plugin files will reference QuickTime). Move those plugin files to a backup folder or delete them, restart Firefox, and confirm QuickTime no longer appears under Tools → Add‑ons → Plugins.

If desktop double‑clicks still try to use QuickTime or trigger the plug‑in error, reset the Windows file association for each affected extension instead of relying on browser options: right‑click a media file (for example .mov, .wmv, .mp3) → Open With → Choose Program → select Windows Media Player and check “Always use the selected program.” If the QuickTime uninstall left broken registrations, reinstall QuickTime briefly, run its custom installer to disable the browser plug‑in, then uninstall cleanly so the uninstaller removes plugin entries properly.

As a last resort, repair/reinstall Windows Media Player (Windows XP: Add/Remove Windows Components) and create a System Restore point before removing files or editing the registry. These steps address the leftover plugin/cache problem that causes the browser to keep trying QuickTime even after uninstall.

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Member Avatar for Kintak

Hmm... that's odd... I've always hated Apple and their damn Quicktime format. It invades your computer with IPod sh**.
Anyway, generally quicktime only plays if the video is in quicktime format. I think the problem may lie in WMP.
Open up WMP and go to Tools>Options. Hit 'file types' and hit the button 'select all'. When your friend installed quicktime, he probably also told his computer to use quicktime with all video types.

Also, check for the extra crap quicktime installs. Something about Ipods and whatnot. We shouldn't have to stand for this from a corporation.

Member Avatar for tayspen

A friend of mine recently hooked up his computer and decided to use Mozilla Firefox as his browser instead if IE. Originally, Windows Media Player was his default audio and video player, but then he downloaded Quicktime in order to view another video. Now his computer will only allow Quicktime to play all his media.

Because he uses Firefox, clicking on TOOLs and then OPTIONS does not access the 'files' option (as it does with IE).

How can I fix this so WMP will be the default?

Thanks!

You would probaly get more response in the web browser section

Member Avatar for Kintak

You would probaly get more response in the web browser section

Not while I'm f***ing up the system! Bwahahaha! :mrgreen:

Member Avatar for nanosani

I assume you're using windows xp ........

1)Go to control panel ... add/remove components ... click the Set program access and defaults tab ... click custom ... and set your system to use windows media player as your default media player.

2) Do what kintak said..

Member Avatar for actfray

I tried everything you guys suggested, but still no luck. In fact, I uninstalled Quicktime, clicked on WMP as my default media player, and now whenever I try to play an audio or video file, I get an error message saying there is a "problem with the Quicktime plug-in".

How can I simply get back to using WMP?

Thanks again.

Member Avatar for nanosani

Do you use quicktime?? if not just uninstall it ...

if yes then try to find the option in quicktime that it doesnot automatically become your default player again..

Member Avatar for Kintak

Actually I've been having plugin problems with Firefox too. It won't use the newer WMP10 plugin, and instead uses a very old one. While I havn't been able to figure out how to fix it, there is an extension to get around it.
Try this extension and see how it goes:

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