Show all File Types in Windows Media Player (WMP)

Question

I'm attempting optimize my setup between Windows Media Player and a SmartTV that uses Windows Media Player's playlist to display and stream files.

Even though my computer has the proper codecs and plays them in Windows Media Player, it ignores all default unsupported file types. This is making it difficult for me to add new folders into what's shared. (As it won't display the files that aren't WMV, AVI, etc.)

Is there a way to force Windows Media Player to associate and show all file types in it's playlist?

I'm able to get them to play and stream, I'd just need to either open each one manually from my computer, or trick WMP into thinking it's supported by renaming the file .WMV. (Which, is a tedious task.)

Just in case you still don't understand, I'm using WMP's Oragnize > Manage Libraries > Videos, then selecting folders with videos there. When I select the folder, it doesn't queue it because it's filled with "unsupported" types. (Even though it's supported.)

To make it clearer, this is not about file playing support. It's about getting the playlist to queue "unsupported" file types it doesn't like. All these files play just fine in WMP.

Solution

For WMP's library to recognize and pick up MKV files, copy/paste the following into Notepad, save it as WMP_MKV.reg, double click this file to add it to the registry, and restart WMP:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.mkv]
"PerceivedType"="video"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Multimedia\WMPlayer\Extensions\.mkv]
"PerceivedType"="video"
"Permissions"=dword:0000000f
"Runtime"=dword:00000007

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\MLS\Extensions]
"mkv"="video"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Multimedia\WMPlayer\Extensions\.mkv]
"PerceivedType"="video"
"Permissions"=dword:0000000f
"Runtime"=dword:00000007

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\MLS\Extensions]
"mkv"="video"

It might be necessary to re-add the existing MKV files in WMP's library if they're already in Other media instead of Videos.

For other file types, you can simply replace all occurrences of mkv in the registry file above with the other file type, and also add the resulting file to the registry.

Comments

[Tim De Baets]

There's no way to force WMP to pick up all file types. For starters, it won't know which unrecognized file types are music and which are video. Support needs to be added in the registry on a per-file type basis. Usually the codec installer takes care of this. Which specific file types do you need to have picked up by WMP, and which codecs did you install for playback?

[DavidPostill]

Welcome to Super User! This duplicates another answer and adds no new content. Please don't post an answer unless you actually have something new to contribute.