Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[brentwoods]

I'm having trouble playing songs directly from windows explorer.  When MC is open and i try playing songs directly from their folders, nothing happens.  When I close the open MC window, a new one opens and plays the song I clicked before.  If I double-click another song from its folder, again nothing till I close the window playing the current song, then a new window opens and plays the song.  The only way anything plays is if no MC window is open in the first place.  It seems like each file clicked in explorer is trying to open a new instance of media center, which it can't until the previous one closes.

I've previously had a similar problem which was solved by reinstalling.  I've tried that again to no avail.  I've even uninstalled MC and deleted its folder (but not registy entries, don't want to stuff up a fresh XP 64 install) but still the same problem.

Does anyone know what might cause this and if so how to fix it?  Thanks.

Also, media library browsing seems much slower than previously.  Is this an XP 64 issue or has the library changed?

[Matt]

Make sure your file assocation points to MC11.exe in the system folder.

MC11.exe is a light-weight launcher that routes commands to the running MC (and starts one if necessary) for the best performance.

I know Win64 made some system folder changes, so maybe that plays a role.

Let us know what you find.

[brentwoods]

Still no joy.  MC11.exe is now in a folder called C:\Windows\SysWOW64.  The WOW64 is something to do with an emulator to run 32 bit applications I think.

When I reinstall MC, clicking on files opens up an "open with" window, as if the association is not set.  If I browse to the SysWOW64 folder and select MC11.exe nothing happens (ie. it is not added to the list of applications to select).  Already in the list though is Media Center.  Selecting this, and ticking the "always use this application" box starts the same problem again.  That is, files will play only if MC is not running, but any subsequently clicked songs don't.  One thing has changed though since reinstalling.  Before when I closed the running MC a new one would automatically open and play the next clicked song, now nothing happens.

Very odd, I'd appreciate any help.  I'm pretty sure the program was working normally when I first installed XP64.

BTW, I have nearly run out of licence restorations!

[Matt]

If you run MC11.exe with no Media Center running, does it launch MC?

If not, it means the launcher isn't working, which would cause lots of issues.

(p.s. if you run out of restores, simply post here and we'll take care of you)

[brentwoods]

Yes, MC11.exe (from SYsWOW64) runs Media Center.  Thanks for promt replies.

Interestingly, when clicking mp3s in explorer the media center window does become active, or if minimised is restored, but the song playing is not changed to the one clicked, nor is the new one added to the playlist.

[brentwoods]

I've now formatted my computer, and tried again on a clean system, and still explorer won't send songs to MC properly.  I've also tried previous versions, but nothing works.

Does anyone have MC working under XP64 so you can play songs directly from their folders?

[Matt]

We're able to reproduce this on a W64 system inhouse.  Hopefully we'll have a fix in the coming days.

Thanks.

[brentwoods]

Pleased I'm not missing something obvious.  Will you post here when the fix is ready?

[Matt]

As a temporary fix, try copying MC11.exe from Windows\SysWOW64 to Windows\System32. (leave a copy in each)

Windows64 does some strange redirection of system paths but it seems to miss some cases.  We're still digging to see how to best handle this moving forward.

Thanks and please let us know if you see any strangeness after creating the extra copy of the launcher.

[brentwoods]

I did already try that with no success before formatting, but on doing it again now (on the formatted system) that's working.  Thanks!