# Help me get rid of Quick Time, please
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-get-rid-of-quick-time-please/225887
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 24, 2004, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-get-rid-of-quick-time-please/225887 "2004-01-24T21:28:21Z")
**Posts on this page:** 16
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2004, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-get-rid-of-quick-time-please/225887/1 "2004-01-24T21:28:21Z")
A couple of days ago, I used Quick Time to watch a movie trailer. I have never used it in the 5 years that I have had this computer. Now, every time I try to watch a video, it automatically plays on the Quick Time viewer. How do I get back to having Windows Media Player as the default instead of Quick Time?
I’m using Windows Xp Home, IE6.
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### Author:  [@Bill\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_H)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2004, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-get-rid-of-quick-time-please/225887/2 "2004-01-24T21:39:42Z")
Open Windows Media Player. Choose Tools/Options. Go to the File Types tab. Select the ones you want.
It’ll be a wonderful day when we can finally grind quicktime and real audio into the ground, but sadly it will be a while.
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### Author:  [@Earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthling)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2004, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-get-rid-of-quick-time-please/225887/3 "2004-01-24T21:46:11Z")
Two other options, just in case:
Call up the QuickTime player, then Edit \> Preferences \> QuickTime Preferences. In the dialog box that then comes up, select “File Type Associations” from the drop-down box, then click on the “File Types” button, and un-select whatever video types you _don’t_ want QucikTime to play. (This sequence is for TT6; earlier verions may differ.)
Call up Windows’s Control Panel, select “Folder Options,” then click on the “File Types” tab. Scroll down to the file type you want to change (e.g., MPEG), click on the “Change” button, then select the player application you’d prefer to use.
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### Author:  [@Doomtrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doomtrain)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2004, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-get-rid-of-quick-time-please/225887/4 "2004-01-24T21:59:07Z")
> [@Bill H.](#):
>
> It’ll be a wonderful day when we can finally grind quicktime and real audio into the ground, but sadly it will be a while.
Find yourself Media Player Classic and you can be rid of RealPlayer, and thank god for it.
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### Author:  [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2004, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-get-rid-of-quick-time-please/225887/5 "2004-01-24T22:06:49Z")
**Bill H**. and **Earthling** , thanks for the quick replies. I did the Windows Media/Tool/Options/File types. The ones I wanted were checked as they should have been, so I unchecked and then rechecked them and all is fine. Thanks again, I owe you guys a beer. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2004, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-get-rid-of-quick-time-please/225887/6 "2004-01-24T22:42:30Z")
Whenever I access a Quicktime file (like a movie trailer), I find that Quicktime has turned itself back on it the startup menu. How do you stop it from doing that?
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### Author:  [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2004, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-get-rid-of-quick-time-please/225887/7 "2004-01-24T23:59:23Z")
> [@Bill H.](#):
>
> It’ll be a wonderful day when we can finally grind quicktime and real audio into the ground, but sadly it will be a while.
Actually, it’ll be a wonderful day when we can all use open standards like MPEG-4 (which is based on QuickTime), and grind proprietary systems like Windows Media and RealAudio into the ground, but sadly it will be a while… especially if Bill Gates has anything to do with it.
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### Author:  [@Eleusis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleusis)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2004, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-get-rid-of-quick-time-please/225887/8 "2004-01-25T00:11:32Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#):
>
> Whenever I access a Quicktime file (like a movie trailer), I find that Quicktime has turned itself back on it the startup menu. How do you stop it from doing that?
Yes, please. Anybody?
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### Author:  [@Earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthling)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2004, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-get-rid-of-quick-time-please/225887/9 "2004-01-25T00:41:32Z")
I’m confused about the question – is the QuickTime icon popping back into the Windows start menu? Does it re-insert itself into the Startup folder? Or does it re-associate itself with certain file formats?
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### Author:  [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2004, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-get-rid-of-quick-time-please/225887/10 "2004-01-25T01:48:26Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#):
>
> Whenever I access a Quicktime file (like a movie trailer), I find that Quicktime has turned itself back on it the startup menu. How do you stop it from doing that?
In QT Player 6.5 go to **Edit|Preferences|QuickTime Preferences** and uncheck the box for **QuickTime system tray icon**. You may then have to manually delete entries out of the Startup folder and the registry key HKEY\_LOCAL\_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run.
If that doesn’t work then install Media Player Classic and never run the QuickTime Player.
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### Author:  [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2004, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-get-rid-of-quick-time-please/225887/11 "2004-01-25T02:40:07Z")
> [@Earthling](#):
>
> I’m confused about the question – is the QuickTime icon popping back into the Windows start menu? Does it re-insert itself into the Startup folder? Or does it re-associate itself with certain file formats?
Quick Time Player is in my Start Up Folder. I use msconfig to de-activate it. Whenever I click on a QT file and play and reboot the computer, QT re-activates itself and is in my systray.
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2004, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-get-rid-of-quick-time-please/225887/12 "2004-01-25T02:42:04Z")
I have to make web downloadable videos all the time. Currently we’re in the midst of a discussion on what filetypes I should offer.
For every MPEG-4 call, there’s a Quicktime call. For every anti-WMV there’s a pro-WMV. For every anti-MPEG1 there’s a pro MPEG1.
The problem is there are so many “standards” that none are set up to deal with every situation (e.g. stream or download, broadband or dialup, image quality or dimensions)
It sucks!
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### Author:  [@Earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthling)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2004, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-get-rid-of-quick-time-please/225887/13 "2004-01-25T03:41:53Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#):
>
> Quick Time Player is in my Start Up Folder. I use msconfig to de-activate it. Whenever I click on a QT file and play and reboot the computer, QT re-activates itself and is in my systray.
Aha. Basically, follow what **Number** said to do. The registry entry that you’ll want to delete is called QuickTime Task, which starts the app. qttask.exe on bootup (and obnoxiously runs it in the background whether the tray icon is active or not). Remove it, and your problem should go away. If you want to be _really_ thorough, you can also find where that executable is stored on your hard drive and remove it (I’ve renamed mine qttask\_DONOTRUN.exe instead of removing it).
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### Author:  [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2004, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-get-rid-of-quick-time-please/225887/14 "2004-01-25T03:43:51Z")
> [@Number](#):
>
> In QT Player 6.5 go to **Edit|Preferences|QuickTime Preferences** and uncheck the box for **QuickTime system tray icon**. You may then have to manually delete entries out of the Startup folder and the registry key HKEY\_LOCAL\_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run.
>
> If that doesn’t work then install Media Player Classic and never run the QuickTime Player.
I’ll try that. Thanks!
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### Author:  [@justplainDave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justplainDave)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2004, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-get-rid-of-quick-time-please/225887/15 "2004-01-26T03:00:13Z")
For the longest time I was in denial like most of you, but I am finally starting to open my eyes to the fact that in some cases, MAC does it better than Windows. I once told myself, “I will NEVER, NEVER EVER own a MAC computer!” and yet just two days ago I found myself downloading a Windows version of iTunes and the new QuickTime that came with it. I encourage the rest of you to maybe admit that MAC and MAC applications really aren’t that bad…
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### Author:  [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2004, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-get-rid-of-quick-time-please/225887/16 "2004-01-26T11:43:33Z")
**justplainDave** , please keep Mac vs. PC comments out of GQ. Thank you.
- **xash**
General Questions Moderator