"Play All" link in the Common Tasks does not work
Published: May 27, 2005Updated : Mar 05, 2007
Send your feedback
Symptom
The Common Tasks pane for Music and video folders contains a Play all link. Clicking this option should open your default Player and queue up all the songs (supported file types) in the folder and play them automatically. In some cases, nothing may happen when you click the Play all link. This article describes how to troubleshoot the problem.
Cause
This happens due to one of the following reasons:
- Incorrect file association settings
- A third-party shell is extension blocking the Play all feature
Resolution
For Case 1: You can fix the file association settings by using this command. Click Start, Run and type:
regsvr32 wmpshell.dll
And then run this command:
%Systemroot%\INF\unregmp2.exe /SetWMPAsDefault
Note that this fixes the file associations, and sets Windows Media Player as the default handler for media file types.
For Case 2: You can isolate the problem using ShellExView. Full instructions are available in this page. Follow the steps under Method 2 in that page. Here are some instances where third-party shell extensions caused the problem:
PowerISO | Object Edit | Daemon Tools | Tauscan (Anti-Trojan) | ACDSee 7.0 | AVG 6.0 | MoveTo
Related article
Error Message "Unable to Find Playable File" in Windows Media Player for Windows XP