Windows Media Player adds context menu items to the right-click menu of several multimedia files even if you do not use this player to play those files.
It makes no sense to keep the items around if you are not using Windows Media Player at all. Removing the entries from Windows Explorer removes some bloat from the menu and reduces the size of the context menu when you right-click on media files.
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_ROOTClsid. 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.
Update: You can alternatively use a freeware program like FileMenu Tools instead if you do not want to edit the Registry. You can use the program to add, edit or remove items from the Windows Explorer context menu.
Please note that the Registry method described above does not work in newer versions of Windows anymore. We suggest you use the freeware program mentioned in the paragraph above instead to remove Windows Media Player entries from the Windows Explorer context menu.
You may also remove Windows Media Player entries from the Open With context menu by opening the Registry and loading HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerFileExts.
There you need to open the file extension and then the OpenWithList subkey. Locate wmplayer.exe there and remove it from the listing.