Clear history files in Media Player

Hi OldandTired,

Follow these steps to delete the recent/frequently played list in Windows Media Player 12 (WMP12):

You can prevent information from being stored if you don't want it to be available to others who use your computer with the same user account. To remove lists of files or URLs you have played:

1.     Click Organize, click Options, and then click the Privacy tab.

2.     To remove existing lists, click Clear History. This also deletes any changes that you have made to the media information for CDs and DVDs.

3.     To prevent lists from being stored in the future, clear the check boxes next to the media types you don't want saved in the History group, and then click OK.

To clear all cached device information and all sync partnership information:

1.     Click Organize, and then click Options.

2.     Click the Privacy tab, click Clear Caches, and then click OK.

Refer:

**http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/windows-media-player-12-privacy-statement#section\_11**

If the above steps do not help in fixing the issue media player library may have gone corrupt. You may rebuild the Windows Media Player database and check if that fixes the issue.

To resolve this problem, clear the Windows Media Player database. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Exit Windows Media Player.
2. Click Start, type %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Media Player, and then click OK.
3. Select all the files in the folder, and then click Delete on the File menu.

Note You do not have to delete the folders that are in this folder.

4. Restart Windows Media Player.

Note Windows Media Player automatically rebuilds the database.

If this does not resolve the problem, clear the Windows Media Player database cache files. To do this, follow these steps:

1.     Exit Windows Media Player.

2.     Click Start, type %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft, and then click OK.

3.     Select the Media Player folder, and then click Delete on the File menu.

4.     Restart Windows Media Player.

Note Windows Media Player automatically rebuilds the database.

Hope this helps!

Gokul - Microsoft Support

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Sorry to revive this old thread but I am having a similar problem but is within the media player (v12) when you go to OPEN (Ctrl+O) a file the File Name Drop Down List is displaying all kinds of opened media, and the method of deleting the files is not clearing the recents of the DDL. I did everything above and nothing, where is that file stored? is it a DAT?

I did the following:

• Deleted the folder %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft, for Media Player
• Clear Cache and History from the Options Menu
• Clear all Windows RECENT files
• Search the registry for paths

 

 Help please!!! Thank you in advance!

I too was having an awful time finding the answer to this question, and eventually discovered it on my own, after having exhausted the same steps you listed (along with trying a few different "cleaners" that claimed to erase your tracks, but all of them overlooked the drop-down lists).

NOTE: I strongly recommend creating a Restore Point before doing any kind of direct editing of the Windows Registry. Also, before deleting a key as described below, I exported that branch of the Registry to a file, to be able to restore it quickly if necessary, without needing to perform an entire system restore.

The MRU lists that populate that drop-down lists are all contained under the Registry key:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ComDlg32\OpenSavePidlMRU]

Each various file type has its own sub-key, and each sub-key has up to 20 numbered values in the right-hand pane, along with the index value MRUListEx

The reason you (and I) could not find them by searching the Registry is that the data is stored as Unicode strings (i.e. each character uses two bytes, as opposed to ASCII, which only uses one byte), and the search box in Regedit does not provide for searching for Unicode strings.

You could selectively delete individual entries, but if you delete an individual value, you would also have to edit the MRUListEx index to remove that item. One wrong move could produce disastrous results. However, you can much more easily delete an entire key (e.g. delete the mpg key to remove all MRU entries with the .mpg file extension), or completely clear the entire list by simply deleting the whole OpenSavePidlMRU key. The next time you access the Open/Save dialog box, it will re-create the main key and re-populate it with empty keys.

I have not yet discovered what process actually adds the values into this list (I tried opening a video both from WMP's Open dialog, and also by double-clicking it in Windows Explorer, and neither method added that file to the MRU list), but since I never really use the list anyway, I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. My primary objective was clearing obsolete items from the list.

Media player 9 dont have a organize tab. Now what? Want to rid of all the old files. They wont play at all.

Sorry to revive this old thread but I am having a similar problem but is within the media player (v12) when you go to OPEN (Ctrl+O) a file the File Name Drop Down List is displaying all kinds of opened media, and the method of deleting the files is not clearing the recents of the DDL. I did everything above and nothing, where is that file stored? is it a DAT?

I did the following:

• Deleted the folder %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft, for Media Player
• Clear Cache and History from the Options Menu
• Clear all Windows RECENT files
• Search the registry for paths

 Help please!!! Thank you in advance!