Windows Media Player users.

While doing something that I do weekly, it dawned on me that I hadn't ever posted about it, nor had I ever seen anyone else post about it here.

Open WMP, click on 'Media Library' and scroll down to 'Deleted items/All Deleted Media' in the left-hand pane.

Click on those and take a look. If you haven't been keeping up with your 'housekeeping', you'll see a list that includes every single title that's ever been deleted from WMP.

No, the files themselves won't be available (unless clicking 'Restore' brings them back to life - don't know, never tried), but the fact they were d/l'ed (complete with date and title) will be established beyond a doubt.

Seeing as how the only way I know of to get rid of them involves right-clicking on each individual entry, selecting 'Delete From Library' and then putting a checkmark in the 'Remove Files Permanently from Hard Drive' box that pops up, then clicking 'Yes' - well, you might want to go take a look and see.

I'm sure there are some programs somewhere that'll do this for you, I just don't happen to know of any right offhand. Anyone knowing of one that does, just jump right in. Pete

 

I'm pretty sure it's a list maintained in the registry, sorta like that comdlg32 reg key. There's an xsetup tweak that cleans up WiMP's history. I'll play with it later today and see if I can find it.

*bookmarks page so he dont' forget.....

 

And again:

Use IEClean (or NSClean) or WindowWasher for these kind of things.
I cannot say it enough: these programs are really very nice and helpful to "secure" your system!!!
And no, I have no commercial interest in them.

Quote from the Helpfile of IEClean:
[hr]
Windows Media Player stores a list of media files that you've played, including URL's from sites that you've downloaded from. In addition, Media player keeps an internal hidden list of everything that it's added to "playlists" that haven't been saved directly.

If you check this box, the unsaved "Playlist 1," "Playlist 2," and all opened files and URL's will be purged from Media player. This will not affect libraries and playlists you deliberately saved for your own use, only those maintained on the sly in Media Player's registry entries.

IEClean is Copyright 1996-2001 by Privacy Software Corporation

 

Jan - Did you check your 'Deleted items/All Deleted Media' section?

Just curious, because the quote you gave didn't really address that, unless I'm mis-reading it. Pete

By the way, if you don't know what something is in there, don't delete it. I'm referring specifically to deleted video files here.

 

Hi Mike,

I looked in the Registry but I couldn't find a key containing these entries.

Here's the reg tweak to clean the WMP mru-lists, but unfortunately it doesn't take care of these deleted items:

REGEDIT4

[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Player\RecentFileList]

[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Player\RecentURLList]

I'll see what else I can find.

Cheers, Tony

 

Hi Pete,

I seldom use WMP myself. Maybe you have to point me to the right place where to look for what you asked.
But I do know that Kevin McAleavey, the creator of IEClean, absolutely knows his stuff; there cannot be any doubt about that!!!

PS: I have to go now off home.

 

Jan - Instructions on how to find what I'm referring to are found in my first post in this thread. Pete

 

I ran Filemon, and found the items were stored in the C:\WINDOWS\wmplibrary_v_0_12.db file.

Selected all, deleted all and the items were gone.

Don't know whether this is the correct procedure, though.

Best to make a copy of the file before deleting its contents.

Cheers, Tony

 

Thanks, Tony! Might give that a try next time. Pete

 

I found two plug-ins related to clearing things from WiMP.

Clearing the cache cleared the list of stuff last played and the deleted items:
Files deleted: 1
c:\WINDOWS\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Media Index\wmplibrary_v_0_12.db
Date: 6/20/2002 9:39 AM
Size: 4,157,440 bytes

Clearing recent items deleted several items under this registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Player\RecentFileList

 

Thanks Mike.

As I reported, mine is in C:\Windows, which seems to indicate that the location of the wmplibrary_v_0_12.db file may indeed vary.

 

FYI, the X-Setup plugins I used are at Program Options > Built in Windows Apps > Windows Media Player using the default UI. It's in one or two other places in there, but I misremember where.
http://www.xteq.com (For advanced puter tweakers)

 

Mike - Thanks!

Xteq does the job perfectly! Can't imagine why I haven't ever gotten around to trying that program before!

Owe you one! Pete