How do I stop QuickTime from playing audio files in my browser?

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Summary: QuickTime Player, a popular player for various formats, has a nasty habit of inserting itself into your browser, and being difficult to remove.

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This is one of the Most Annoying Things Ever.

Can you tell I've experienced this?

Let's look at what's happening, and what to do.

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Here's the scenario: you find a link to an MP3 file on a web page, and click it. The web page disappears, is temporarily replaced with the QuickTime logo:

And then a small audio player, centered on the page:

which then begins to play the audio. You have to hit Back to return to the page you were viewing, but of course that stops the audio.

Most annoying "feature" ever.

And it's not at all obvious how to get it to stop.

Turns out, it's fairly easy.

The "trick", if you want to call it that, is even if you don't actually plan to use Windows Media Player long term, set it to become the default player, then disassociate QuickTime from everything, and then go ahead and pick another media player as the default. But make sure to let Windows Media Player do the heavy lifting first.

First, exit Internet Explorer.

Run Windows Media Player, type ALT+T to get the "Tools" menu, then click on Options, and then on the File Types tab.

Make sure that MP3 audio file is checked. Click OK.

Now, it's also a good idea to remove QuickTime's misguided associations as well.

Fire up QuickTime Player, click on the Edit menu, Preferences item, and then the Quicktime Preferences sub-item. Click on the File Types tab:

I uncheck Audio, MPEG and MP3. While I'm here I also uncheck Notify me if other applications modify these associations, so as to keep QuickTime from bugging me in the future.

Next, still in QuickTime preferences, click on the Browser tab, and then the Mime Settings... button.

Same thing here: uncheck Audio, MPEG and MP3, as well as Notify me if other applications modify these associations.

Click OK as appropriate and exit QuickTime Player.

At this point, MP3 files should play automatically in Windows Media Player, outside of your browser.

If you'd like to choose a different player you can:

Use that player's options to re-establish its association with MP3 files. Re-install that player, which often offers to reset file associations. Run the Set Program Access And Defaults tool in Windows XP, Default Programs in Window Vista and Windows 7, to set a different default media player.

Now, the bad news.

It is possible that the next time you take a QuickTime update (or an iTunes update, which often includes a QuickTime update) you might need to repeat this process. It may have gotten better, but QuickTime has a nasty reputation for taking over.

I know that Microsoft gets a lot of flak for forcing things on you because "they know better", but in my opinion Apple's no better when it comes to QuickTime. Perhaps over time they'll improve, but the fact that this has been happening for years doesn't speak well to the situation.

Related:

• How do I get rid of the Quicktime Icon in the Windows System Tray? Every time you update Quicktime, it reinstalls the Quicktime Icon in the System Tray. Annoying. And apparently unavoidable.

• What's the best media player? Video playback is a confusing mess. For most people the player to be used is defined not by personal preference, but by the type of file.

Article C3872 - September 18, 2009