Here’s the deal…
Every time I download anything in .exe format, Media Player tries to open it. But Media Player doesn’t support .exe format. so, I can’t download any software. Well, I can, I just can’t execute it. This include the Media Player Update which is in .exe format. How do I make it so that edia Player doesn’t try to open these files? What do I use to open them? HELP!
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I think you should be able to open .exe files by themselves. Just double click on it and see what happens.
I wondered whether MP had become associated with .exe files, but I would reckon that not much would work on the machine if that were so.
Did you download it to a specific location (i.e. c: emp or My Downloads or whatever), or did you open it directly? If you downloaded to your drive, what happens when you execute it from there? If you opened it directly, try saving it to your drive first (i.e. right click on the link and save-target-as).
If .exes have become associated with MP - and again, I can’t see how this could be - you can break the association with (in XP):
Run explorer, goto tools/folder options, then the file types tab. Examine the list to see if MP is associated with .EXEs and remove the association if it exists.
Whenever I double-click on it, it opens Media Player. Then I get an error message saying the format is not supported. I never "tell it to open Media Player. It just does it on its own.
This one is a real head-scratcher. Xerxes is thinking in the right direction, but there’s a problem. In WinXP (not sure about other flavors), .EXE isn’t even a registered file type. In other words, when you do the tools/folder options thing, .EXE isn’t even listed! It seems as if XP protects you from messing around with the application associations of a .EXE file, for obvious reasons.
Which leaves us with mmm…forbidden doughnut’s problem - I can’t imagine how I would create that situation even if I wanted to!
Re: the first paragraph, I use Windows 98. So, I’m not sure I really understand what you mean here.
Regarding the second, if I do this, what then will open .exe files?
When you right click on the exe file, which option is bolded? Is it something other than “open”?
Can you drop to a dos window, cd into the directory with the exe, and run it from the command line?
Can you create a shortcut to the exe and try to run the shortcut?
<grasping at straws>
-lv
I don’t have a Win98 machine to play with, but try this: double-click on My Computer. Then, from the toolbar, select View/Folder Options. Then click on the File Types tab. Scroll down through the list of file types, and see if EXE is in the list. If it is, see if there’s a way to “break” its assocation with Media Player.
Actually, EXE shouldn’t be associated with any application - the operating system runs files with that extension, not some other application!
um, huh?
Exe files should be opened by the OS, (which is why Early Out pointed out that it’s not an option under XP to associate them with anything else - and why I pondered that nothing would work if MP tried to open exes).
So… what happens when you try and start another exe (say by double-clicking on it, or running it from Start->Run)?
Can you run anything else on the machine?
I’m fast running out of ideas here, but if all else fails, does '98 have <regedit>? You can search the registry for certain strings; I’d try search for the name of the MP executable (Find is under Edit).
That’s if you can run regedit in the first place, of course, rather than having MP croak trying to run it.
This Knowledge Base article mentions a similar problem with QuickTime. You might want to try the registry fix it suggests.
That just isn’t right. I don’t even have an .exe file type in Folder Options. What happens if you try to run the file from the Run dialog box?
There is a file type association tab in Media Player but .exe file types are not listed as they should.You might want to check your setting.
The easiest thing to do may be to remove Media Player.
Might want to try the EXE fix ?
Thank you! Thank you! I will try that as soon as I get home!
I’ll put my money on the KB article that Number has tracked down. Don’t ask me why, but it just sounds like the right ticket.
This didn’t work. :rolleyes:
Neither did this. I did everything it said to do and it was very easy. But when I tried to open an exe file, MP still opened. I didn’t restart the computer before I tried and then gave up. Could that be it?
When did this problem start? If it’s within the last few days then you may be able to restore the registry using Win98’s scanreg utility. Boot into DOS (hit F8 before Windows loads and select Command prompt only), type scanreg /restore, and select a date before the problem occurred.
Easy way to find out?! 
I guess I should say what happened. I did what this page said to do but when I got the exe part of the command “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\InternetExplorer\Plugins\Extension.exe” exe wasn’t listed.
What now?