# Evil bloated Win Mediaplayer...

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-bloated-win-mediaplayer/92814>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 11, 2001, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-bloated-win-mediaplayer/92814 "2001-11-11T22:30:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Muad\_Dib](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/35a633/32.png) [@Muad\_Dib](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muad_Dib)\
**Post date:** [November 11, 2001, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-bloated-win-mediaplayer/92814/1 "2001-11-11T22:30:53Z")

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How do I turn of the annoying visualizations?  
How do I de-bloat the program as a whole? For example, How do I keep it from  
automatically opening to that annoying Microsoft media webpage?

I just want a simple media player, something like winamp (God bless 'em).

Is there anyway to turn WMP into such? Or are there any decent programs out there that  
I can use to take its place?

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**Author:** ![HoldenCaulfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/22d042/32.png) [@HoldenCaulfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoldenCaulfield)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2001, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-bloated-win-mediaplayer/92814/2 "2001-11-12T00:50:52Z")

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Uninstall it and download Windows Media Player 6.4 from the website. After 6.4 they made it really lame.

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**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2001, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-bloated-win-mediaplayer/92814/3 "2001-11-12T01:37:46Z")

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visualizations: go to tools/options/visualizations and try deleting all the visualizations from there.

disable media webpage from opening by default: go to tools/options/player and tick off “start player in media guide”

then, make sure that you associate all your audio files with winamp and all your video files with active movie player instead of windows media player ( active movie is kinda a stripped down version of windows media player, on the lines of what you’re lookin’ for ) do this by right clicking on your video files while holding the shift key, then select open with, then choose active movie player and make sure “always use this program to open these files” is ticked.