monreale...
Thanks for accepting my work on your behalf, even if it didn't
result in a definitive answer. I'll reproduce it here for the
sake of future readers.
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I don't own a copy of WinDVD, so this may not be simple to
figure out. If you are referring to the WinDVD on this page:
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/WinDVD_Platinum.htm
...I could download it and look through the options/preferences
to see if there's an option to allow/disallow keeping a history
of videos played. There usually is, for such players, but if
there's not, the history is probably kept in the registry, and
would require editing the registry to erase it.
However, you're asking about history after noting that WinDVD
now comes up instead of WMP. If your goal is to have WMP play
the streamed videos instead of WinDVD, this has nothing to do
with the history, really. It has to do with 'associations'.
The authors of many media players, in their hopes of showing
you the versatility of their player, and of having you use
their product as the default player for most media filetypes,
make the assumption that they should change all the default
file associations when you install the software (one of the
reasons I'd be hesitant to install WinDVD in order to dig
into its preferences). They essentially 'steal' the right
to play certain filetypes from the default player, which is
usually Windows Media Player (WMP).
However, they *usually* have a section in the preferences
where the filetypes are listed and you can uncheck the
filetypes you don't want played in WinDVD by default.
When properly done, this preferences dialog is presented
during the installation process, but some people don't
notice it and the associations get reset at that time.
If you go into Preferences and look for a section on
Filetypes or Associations, you should be able to de-select
WinDVD from playing filetypes normally played by WMP,
and this should automatically reset WMP as the default
player for those filetypes. If you only want to use it
to play DVDs, just uncheck everything but DVDs.
---
My searching has turned up no way to do this within WinDVD, but
I did find a utility called Advanced History Supervisor 1.1,
made by Computer Expert Software, which allows you to erase the
history for many programs, including WinDVD:
http://www.compexpsoft.com/ahs.html
It costs $19.95. They have a 30-day free trial, and I'm not sure
what restrictions are imposed after that.
---
P.S. If you're technically-minded, you could also open regedit,
the registry editor, and use it to search for the name of a
recent video file you've played with WinDVD. This should take
you to the location in your registry where the 'recent file list'
for that program is, and you could delete the entries from the
registry that way. You don't need to search for the entire URL,
just the actual filename, like whatever.mpg or movie.vob, etc.
These entries are probably stored in a location such as:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\WinDVD\ where you will find values
named mru_1, e.g, with the location of the last videos you played.
mru means 'most recently used'.
Or, it might be in a subfolder like this:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\WinDVD\RecentURLList\ with a list
of values like URL1 - URL20.
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I'm actually a little surprised that the tech you spoke with
told you that the Player keeps no history, since the makers of
the program I mentioned, Advanced History Supervisor, make a
point of advertising its ability to erase the history of many
programs, specifically including WinDVD in the list.
Anyway, thanks again for being such an honorable and pleasant
customer.
Best regards...
sublime1-ga
Searches done, via Google:
WinDVD history
://www.google.com/search?q=WinDVD+history
WinDVD history -revision -version
://www.google.com/search?q=WinDVD+history+-revision+-version
WinDVD "erasing * history
://www.google.com/search?q=WinDVD+%22erasing+*+history |
