windows mediaplayer does not start when

Is media player the only player installed for you or have you installed Zoomplayer, BS-player or any ? Every player tries to capture the attention of WIndows when you givges a click on a file with a list of video extensions (avi, ogm, mpeg, mpg, asf, wmf..)
You can restore the links to Wmplayer in the Tools | Options | Formats menu of Windows media Player.
Another possibility is in the Windows explorer program, choosing the Tool options menu File types. But under Windows 98 this is not veryeasy, it is better in Win2000 and XP but not very efficient when you want to rapidly visualize the list of tools available fora given extension, and to choose a new temporary preference...

sorry i did not tell you: 1. i have winme 2. i have told irfanview to use any extensions.
3. somebody told me using only graphics ext. in irfanview, although its has now fanstastic multimedia capabilities with its plugins.
4. i should resintall without deinstalling wmplayer. i have never done such a single windows-program-install. if i use software then it will be deinstalled. how can i handle this?

This question was closed by the author