I seem to have problems with avi files. Whenever I normally left or right click the avi file, the computer freezes for a sec then a Program Error pops up and says explorer.exe has generated errors and has to be closed, then My Computer closes. When I try to open the files with Windows Media Player, another message pops up saying WMP has encountered problem and needs to be closed.(Oh and the file doesn't even show up when I try and open it with WMP set on Media files as the file type, I have to change the file type to All Files before I can see the AVI files) Only when I open with VLC player can I play the file and left and right click on the files when browsing using VLC without encountering any problems. A change that I noticed was the icon for the avi files became a blank sheet with a windows logo, instead of the WMP logo or VLC logo. I also checked on the properties of these AVI files using VLC as a way to click on them. Right now, the avi files are all supposed to open with VLC. However, there is no vlc icon on any of the files, and as I said earlier, I can't click the files normally, single or double. The files all end with .avi. If I rename it and take away the .avi, the files type on properties says it's just a file and I can actually click on it normally w/o crashing but I cant open it with anything after clicking it. An open with thing pops up, but the 'Always use the selected program ...' option is grayed and I cant click it (though I don't think it will help even if I can click it), and there is no "Open with" option on properties. Someone mentioned my AVI files are not associated correctly. No idea what that means, but if it helps... Anyways is there any way to get AVI back to normal? Any help will be greatly appreciated.

As far as I can understand, there is a problem with your file associations. Probably the best thing to do is to clear everything and define it again. 1) Go to Tools>Options>File Types in WMP. Remove the tick for avi. 2) Go to VLC, repeat the same thing. 3) Go to Folder Options>File Types from the Control Panel. Select the avi extension and remove it. Finally, go to the media player you prefer (to playback avi files) and check the avi option again. I hope this works...

I did the thing with WMP, but I can't find the option in VLC. Any help?

Ok I fixed the problem. It seemed I either had too much different codecs installed or some of them were broken and I had to uninstall them all and replace them with just a k-lite codec pack. Thanks for the help anyways.

Nice to hear that it is fixed. Let me say a few things anyway: Apparently, VLC Player is such a polite software that it doesn't take over any extensions. It doesn't even have options to assign extensions. A reliable way to arrange file associations for VLC Player is the following: batch file for associating VLC Player with a file extension: ----- @echo off echo Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00> vlc_associate.reg echo.>> vlc_associate.reg echo [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.avi]>> vlc_associate.reg echo @="VlcFile">> vlc_associate.reg echo.>> vlc_associate.reg echo [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\VlcFile]>> vlc_associate.reg echo @="VLC File">> vlc_associate.reg echo.>> vlc_associate.reg echo [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\VlcFile\DefaultIcon]>> vlc_associate.reg echo @="%cd:\=\\%\\vlc.exe,0">> vlc_associate.reg echo.>> vlc_associate.reg echo [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\VlcFile\shell\Open]>> vlc_associate.reg echo [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\VlcFile\shell\Open\command]>> vlc_associate.reg echo @="%cd:\=\\%\\vlc.exe \"%%1\"">> vlc_associate.reg regedit /s "vlc_associate.reg" del "vlc_associate.reg" ----- Copy the thing above to a text file and save it as associate.bat Copy it to the VLC program folder (folder that contains vlc.exe) When you run it, it will associate avi files with VLC Player and assign the default VLC icon. If you are not happy with the icon, it is possible to change it: 1) Go to Control Panel > Folder Options > File Types 2) Find the extension (avi in this example) 3) Click advanced > Change icon 4) Browse to the location of the exe file or an icon you prefer. Windows Media Player for example... (Windows Media Player\wmplayer.exe in Program Files directory) When you select wmplayer.exe, you should see the available icons. Select one of them, click OK. The icon will be Windows Media icon, but it will still open with VLC Player. It is possible to use this method for other file types also. The idea is to replicate the following in the batch file: echo [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.avi]>> vlc_associate.reg echo @="VlcFile">> vlc_associate.reg for example: echo [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.mp3]>> vlc_associate.reg echo @="VlcFile">> vlc_associate.reg echo [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.wmv]>> vlc_associate.reg echo @="VlcFile">> vlc_associate.reg To reset the associations: ----- @echo off echo REGEDIT4> vlc_clear.reg echo.>> vlc_clear.reg echo [-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\VlcFile]>> vlc_clear.reg regedit /s "vlc_clear.reg" del "vlc_clear.reg" ----- Paste this to a text file and save it as clear.bat When you run it, VLC Player will no longer be associated with any file extension. Finally: -------- I don't understand why you struggle with codec packs if you are using VLC Player. The good thing about VLC Player is that, it has built-in support for various media formats and you don't need codecs at all. In my opinion, the best way to screw up a system is to install codec packs. If someone is eager to do that, I would suggest the following: Google for something like "super ultra codec pack". Install whatever comes up first and you are probably done. :) It will copy hundreds of files to your system32 folder and most probably it will screw up something. If you are lucky, you also get spyware/adware as bonus. :)

Ah ok thanks for the info. As for the codec pack, there were some movies that I had troubles running before with WMP, so I downloaded some codecs and it became a habit to keep these codecs even after changing to VLC. And i like to run mkv files with media classic, so I probably still need those codecs.