The Default CD Player

The old, classic CD Player (cdplayer.exe) is fast and simply, and does not have a large annoying display.  However. all new systems are configured with large, slow players.  The usual is either Windows Media Player or Real Player - but both start slowly and their controls are not simple.  Unfortunately, cdplayer does not work with XP.

This page tells you how to configure your system to Autoplay CD's

Win95-98-ME

-  return the association to the regular CD player:

remove all the Audio CD and CD Audio instances in the Folder Options/File Types

then to use "cdplayer.exe" goto Control Panel/Add-Remove Programs . . ."Windows Setup" Multimedia, then uncheck the CD Player, OK, OK, go back in, and recheck it. 

WinXP Pro 

• the old "CDplayer.exe" from Win98 does not work with WinXP
• mplayer2 (Active Movie) does not work with XP
• Mplay32 does work with XP, however it does not work well and getting it to recognize the "device" (a unique requirement with mplay32) is a pain.  Worse - it does not automatically play the next track. 

So just configure your system to autoplay using wmplayer.exe to handle your CD Audio file type.

_{A note about the Default Associations}

The File Types from Explorer/Tools/Folder Options seem to have no effect on Autoplay. There are various file types such as Audio CD, and CDA extensions - but these by default are all unassociated with any application, and yet - Autoplay still works. 

WMPLAYER with WinXP

Method 1 - configure the Autoplay "action to take" - for the CD Player

Windows initially sets the autoplay CD handlers to "Prompt me each time to choose an action". Therefore, the first time you insert a Music CD the system (if not already setup for autoplay) will ask you what "Action" you want to occur. The typical is using Windows Media Player, so select that unless you want something else to play the CD's. Also check the "Always use this Application" box. 

Goto "My Computer" (or use "My Computer" in Explorer) - right-click the CD Drive - select Properties/Autoplay tab" This box contains settings that tells Windows what to do depending on what it sees on the CD. You can make it react differently depending on whether the CD contains Music, Pictures, Video, or Mixed Content.

You will see the most commonly recognized CD Playres in the selction box, such as WMplayer, and Real Player.

NOTE: Device Manager with XP has no setting for AutoPlay !!! 

Method2 - Configure Regsitry Association to Autoplay using Wmplayer

*** as we mentioned - you can use the "My Computer/CD entry/Properties/AutoPlay tab/ etc.  -  but sometimes this does not work.  Here we shows you how to configure the registry settings for the file association for "CD Audio File"

• open Explorer
• Tools/Folder Options . . . "File Types" tab
• locate the entry "CD Audio File"
• edit it and make sure it contains two actions- "Open" and then "Play"
• set them both to "C:\ . . . path . . .\wmplayer.exe" /Play "%L"

Other CD Players with WinXP

Not recommended, but if you must - you can configure them - using both the Group Policy Editor (Start/Run . . .gpedit.msc), and TweakUI 

Step 1)  Enable Autoplay with GPedit

SKIP THIS STEP UNLESS DESPARATE - AUTOPLAY IS RUNNING FINE ON MY SYSTEM WITHOUT THIS STEP.

First - you must make sure that the group policy setting is set to "Enabled" - otherwise Windows will ignore the setting in the My Computer CDROM properties box !!! To do this, follow these steps: 

Start/Run/GPEDIT.MSC

Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/System

Locate the entry for Turn On Autoplay, right-click and select "Properties" 

set the CDROM autoplay to "Enabled" for all CDROM Drives 

Step 2) Install TweakUI

If you haven't already, install TweakUI from Windows XP Poweroys (Tweak XP Pro cannot do this step). You must understand that Windows uses "handlers" to cause an action to happen with AutoPlay, as described in Step 3. However, the default list of Handlers in Step 3 is very short, and only allows you to play the files with Windows Media Player. TweakUI allows you to assign other handlers. Here we will add an entry to that list. 

NOTE: to do this, you will need a CD player that works with WinXP:

Again - JUST USE WMPLAYER.EXE - but if you must use another - here's how:

Step 3) Add the Handler to the Windows list of Handlers 

• copy the app to c:\windows:
• open TweakUI 
• select "My Computer/AutoPlay/Handlers" 
• click "Create New" 
• fill in the boxes: Description: Play Audio CD using: "the app's name"
• click the "CD Audio" checkbox 
• click "change program" and select the app from the Windows folder
• click OK, and then select that entry, click "Apply" and then OK 

Step 4) Configure the Autoplay to that Handler

 Goto "My Computer" (or use "My Computer" in Explorer) - right-click the CD Drive - select Properties/Autoplay tab" This box contains settings that tells Windows what to do depending on what it sees on the CD. You can make it react differently depending on whether the CD contains Music, Pictures, Video, or Mixed Content.: click the drop-down box and select "Music CD" 

click "Select an Action to Perform" click the setting the handler or action that you want to play the CD click "Apply" and then "OK" DONE !!! 

NOTE1: the box has settings for both "Music Files" and "Music CD" - you are only interested in "Music CD" - you can leave the setting for "Music Files" at the default of "Take no Action" 

NOTE2: this box contains a setting that is the culprit if your CD is causing an Explorer window to open each time you insert it !!! Again even setiing it to "Take no Action" will not stop this window from opening unless you have already went into GPEDIT and set the policy for the CDRROM autoplay feature to Enabled. By default it must be set to "Not Configured" !!!