# Help! Real Player Has Taken Over My Computer!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-real-player-has-taken-over-my-computer/242265
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 27, 2004, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-real-player-has-taken-over-my-computer/242265 "2004-04-27T12:34:52Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2004, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-real-player-has-taken-over-my-computer/242265/1 "2004-04-27T12:34:52Z")
Well, not really. But now all of my mp3’s play on Real Player when I play them, though I’d prefer to have them play on Windows Media Player. Do I need to delete Real Player, or is there a way to change the settings so my mp3’s go back to Windows Media?
Emachines T2885
512MB Ram
80Gig Hard drive
Windows XP
TIA
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### Author:  [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2004, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-real-player-has-taken-over-my-computer/242265/2 "2004-04-27T12:47:24Z")
Right click on My Computer, select **Explore**. Locate an mp3 file, right click on it and select **Open With**. Select Windows Media Player, then put a check in the box that says, “Always use this program to open this kind of file”, and click OK. Real player will keep asking you if you want to change it back though.
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### Author:  [@muttrox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muttrox)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2004, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-real-player-has-taken-over-my-computer/242265/3 "2004-04-27T12:49:32Z")
There is a way. Explore the options of both Real Player and Windows Media Player. Somewhere in there are settings that tell each one what file types to play. You want to make sure that .mp3 is unchecked for Real Player, and checked for WMP. Not a hardware issue, just software configurations.
For Real One, go to Tools / Prefences / Content / Media Types
For WMP, go to Tools / Options / File Types
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### Author:  [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2004, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-real-player-has-taken-over-my-computer/242265/4 "2004-04-27T13:19:35Z")
That was easy. Thanks.