Double clicking on MP3 in Windows XP Pro. SP3's Explorer runs SpyBot v1.6.2

[antdude]

Weird. When I double click on a MP3 file in my updated Windows XP Pro. SP3's Explorer, it runs SpyBot S&D v1.6.2 to scan it. I checked my file association for MP3 and it says run mplayer2.exe (yes, I am old school). What's up?

Thank you in advance.

[DougCuk]

Where the default action for a file-type is not fully configured in the registry Spybot can accidentally hijack the default response - many have reported the same problem but with PDF files. If you right click on any MP3 file and check the context menu you will probably find that the Spybot scan item is shown in bold - this is the default double click action - it needs re-setting back to the normal default of "Play".

Try the following:
In Explorer select the "Tools" menu then bottom item "Folder Options"
Then select the "File Types" tab page and scroll down to the entry for MP3
Click the "Advanced" button - Highlight the "Play" item and click the "Set Default" button

[antdude]

Where the default action for a file-type is not fully configured in the registry Spybot can accidentally hijack the default response - many have reported the same problem but with PDF files. If you right click on any MP3 file and check the context menu you will probably find that the Spybot scan item is shown in bold - this is the default double click action - it needs re-setting back to the normal default of "Play".

Try the following:
In Explorer select the "Tools" menu then bottom item "Folder Options"
Then select the "File Types" tab page and scroll down to the entry for MP3
Click the "Advanced" button - Highlight the "Play" item and click the "Set Default" button

It is already at default for Play. See my screen capture: http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/24/screenshotbg8.gif ... :(

[DougCuk]

Try resetting the MP3 association in MPlayer2 itself.
Start MPlayer2 - normally located at C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\mplayer2.exe
Then View->Options->Formats and tick the MP3 box.

You might need to restart Windows to reload the registry to activate the new settings.

If that doesn't work then the following thread details a few options that were suggested when the same issue arose with PDF files
http://forums.spybot.info/showthread...136#post223136

[antdude]

Try resetting the MP3 association in MPlayer2 itself.
Start MPlayer2 - normally located at C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\mplayer2.exe
Then View->Options->Formats and tick the MP3 box.

You might need to restart Windows to reload the registry to activate the new settings.

If that doesn't work then the following thread details a few options that were suggested when the same issue arose with PDF files
http://forums.spybot.info/showthread...136#post223136

Yeah, I tried that earlier too. Here's what is interesting. If I uncheck to tell mplayer2.exe not to play MP3, then Windows Media Player v10 opens up instead of SpyBot. If I recheck for mplayer2.exe, then SpyBot scans it. Umm, weird.

I downloaded Enable+Disable Spybot-S&D Context Menu Entry.zip and disabled SpyBot, MP3 came up in mplayer2.exe correctly. I re-enabled Spybot's scan and now it works. Weird.

I see that this is a common problem. Why so many users with this problem?

[DougCuk]

The tricky part about this problem is that it is not a Spybot problem per se. As I understand it the way Spybot adds itself to the context menu is highlighting problems with other programs default settings - hence various different programs have suffered this effect but only in a small percentage of systems.

Essentially it is a question of which program takes priority when you request Windows to "start" that file - and as you have found this is not easy to fix when it gets confused. Many programs on a computer CAN open and run a file and Windows uses the one with the highest priority - basically the one that responds first. I believe there was discussion of using a different type of context menu setup in future versions to avoid this problem.