WMP Won't Play From Atch Files in OE

When I get an attachment such as a WMP file, it no longer will allow me to play from OE to see if I want to save it. The Media Player opens and indicates that the file is not one that Windows Media Play can open. However, if I save the file and then try to play it all is fine.

In the past I reviewed before saving. Am looking for a suggestion to get it back to that. Can't say for sure how long it's been acting this way, probably weeks.

 

Start->run->sfc /scannow and OK will probably fix you up Mudd. Sorry for the delay but I somehow missed this thread until just now.

 

I did the SFC before posting. I would do a repair but with the new system that Dell has, there is no CD with the OS on it. There are most programs on separate disk but no restore except for restoring it back to original shipping status. I can live with this. Just thought maybe someone would have a solution at hand.

Thanks for the reply.

 

Mudd - before you revert the thing, check both your CDs and your hard drive for a folder named I386. If you find one, it has all the system files that SFC needs and it is then just a matter of making one small registry change to tell XP where to look for the files. The default location is tries to use is on the regular install CD and if you don't have that exact one, XP gets confused.

 

Have the I386 in the Root Folder. Now for the Reg Chg!

 

Click on start, on run, enter regedit and OK.

Look at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Setup\SourcePath (you'll need to drill down to find it).

Once there, make a safety copy of the Setup section by right-clicking on it, selecting Export, and exporting it using a name you'll remember (but keeping the .reg ending) and to a location you'll remember. That way if things go wrong, you can run that reg file by double-clicking and it will set everything back to the way it is now.

Now click on Setup and then look on the right hand side for an entry named SourcePath.

For your system, the value of SourcePath should be C:\ so right-click on SourcePath, select Modify, and change it to C:\

If you don't have the SourcePath piece you'll need to create one. Click on Edit (word at the top), new, string value. Name it SourcePath (and it's gotta be exact). The Type should be REG_SZ. Once you have it, right click on SourcePath, click on Modify, and set the value data to c:\

Close the registry editor and the deed should be done. Try SFC /scannow again and it ought to work.

 

Done. The procedure works just fine without a disk to the point of ending. Just before the indicator bar reaches the final point, a window pops up wanting my "CD XP Pro Inserted." Don't have one. I check "ignore" and it moves for a second or two and repeats that request. There are 4 times this will happen and then it finishes.

That appears to me to four items it wants to overwrite. Have done this several times and it's the same each time.

I've put the DVD in, attempting to direct the search to DVD but it won't take.

By the way, several people on the Dell Forum have pestered Dell for so long about this they indicate Dell finally sent them a CD with the necessary OS information and other things that they can use it for this purpose. I've tried more than once for this and one time I got a bunch of CD Disk with drivers and Dell installed programs, and another DVD with the OS on it. No CD.

I'm going to ask additional time until I get something.

Thanks for the information. Again this is not a Show Stopper. I can accept this.