Settings>Preferences>Viewer>Plugins>ActiveX+Preview+Office+Web>Configure> Windows Media Player
When Windows Media Player is checked, everything works as it should: The audio tracks are played (but thankfully not auto-played) and artwork is showing! The problem is that the player is not docked (pinned - use any word you want) INTO the viewer (as it happened in previous versions of Dopus) and floats around! How can I pin it to the viewer?
Does the same happen in File Explorer? It should be the same viewer.
My default music player is AIMP.
- If I uncheck Windows Media Player from Settings>Preferences>Viewer>Plugins>ActiveX+Preview+Office+Web>Configure>Windows Media Player AND remove mp3 from Settings>Preferences>Viewer>Plugins>ActiveX+Preview+Office+Web>Configure>Generic ActiveX (32 AND 64 bit) then Dopus shows the cover art in viewer and - when clicked - opens my default player (AIMP) to play the track. The EXACT same thing happens (by default and without changing ANY settings) in File explorer i.e. the viewer displays the cover art and (when clicked) plays the track in the default player (AIMP).
- But if in Dopus I uncheck Windows Media Player from Settings>Preferences>Viewer>Plugins>ActiveX+Preview+Office+Web>Configure>Windows Media Player AND leave mp3 in Settings>Preferences>Viewer>Plugins>ActiveX+Preview+Office+Web>Configure>Generic ActiveX (32 or 64 bit) then Dopus viewer AUTO-PLAYS the track in a blank background without showing the cover art and displaying the standard player buttons in a bottom ribbon (play-stop-pause-forward-backward)!
- As I wrote in my previous post (and I'm repeating that here), if I check Windows Media Player in Dopus then I have the RIGHT behavior: The audio-tracks are played (but not auto-played) and the the cover art is displayed in a floating Windows media viewer NOT pinned or docked in Dopus viewer!
Since I don't like to have an additional Windows media viewer floating around and, on the other hand, would like to see the cover art without auto-playing the tracks I - currently - have unchecked Windows Media Player AND removed mp3 (+flac+ape) from Generic ActiveX (32 AND 64 bit). So my current Dopus configuration is as per point 1 which coincides with the Windows file explorer default behavior.
It looks like Microsoft have completely broken their Windows Media Player preview handler in the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update.
It doesn't work in Explorer at all for me (I just get a blank panel in Explorer's sea of white space), while it fails slightly differently in Opus (like you, it opens a weird borderless window in the background instead of in the viewer panel).
I don't think there is much we can do about that, except suggest using one of the other options until when/if Microsoft remember preview handlers exist, and how to write code, and re-hire the QA department they laid off (that isn't even a joke!), and fix their viewer. (We might write a replacement viewer one day, but not in the short term.)
#2 in your list is how Opus is configured by default. The WMP preview handler is not used by default.
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Here's a thread dating back to the Creator's Update, where people say the same thing started happening back then, breaking WAV previews in Outlook (which uses the same preview handlers that Explorer relies on, and which Opus can use if you opt-in to using them);
May 2017:
I have this same exact issue. The preview handler floats outside of the message area and in the background behind outlook when you select the wav attachment. You can switch to it, but it is not as well integrated as it was prior to the 1703 update. I
haven't tested with mp3 or mpeg but wav files definitely are broken. My windows version is 1703 (OS Build 15063.296) and Office 365 Pro Plus Outlook 2016 is up to date with the latest updates Version 1703 (Build 7967.2161 Click-to-Run).
Latest post is October 2017:
Hi everyone,
has any had any success with this yet? I've just had the Fall Creators update and the same problem exists.
it does seem to be something to do with windows media player in that the prevew handler doesn't seem to load correctly. As this has been going on for some six months or more it would be great to get an answer from MS?
The Windows Media Player preview handler appears to work again after the Windows 10 update to build 1803.
At least in Opus. It still doesn't seem to work in Explorer, for some reason.
Yes! It works again! Thanks for the heads-up! Much appreciated!