WMP 64bit - Scrambled File Associations - No Media Will Play

I recently reinstalled Windows 7 on my PC, and was getting everything set up again, when I ran into a bug that I can't believe is still present in Windows 7 after two years of it being a supposedly known issue.This bug pertains to WMP 12 64 bit.I fell victim to this bug back in 2010, but the problem is I don't remember how I fixed it.Here is an old thread wherein the first post, by Chappy, describes EXACTLY what happened to my system. Windows 7 Codec Pack (from Vista Codec Pack developer)Specifically, this is what I'm talking about...."NOTE - There seems to be a behaviour noted in Vista that possibly has carried over to Windows 7 as well. It's not a VCP related behaviour but it CAN affect if some files play or not.Vista (and Windows 7) come with both a 32 & 64bit version of WMP and it was found in Vista that if you associated a certain file type with WMP while the 64bit player was set to the default, that file association could NOT be changed even if WMP was set to use the 32bit player as default afterwards. This causes certain file types to be Unplayable due to 64bit WMP's limitations (well actually it's CODEC limitations). There are no functional differences between 32 or 64bit WMP but because of "lazy" CODEC developers, many CODECS are not 64bit compatible...yet.

Because of this, most of us set the 32bit WMP as default before making any file association changes for WMP. This way the 32bit WMP will play all file types with no issues using VCP. Unfortunately, if you have opened a media file in Windows 7 and checked the "associate this file type to WMP" option while the 64bit player is default (which it is out of the box), then that file type may not play even though you change to 32bit player using the VCP x64 tools.Another thing I think I've found is that .FLV (Flash Video) files will not play in WMP no matter which version is default. They do play in WMC, and I'm going to check with Shark007 later about .flv support, so I'll post any results later."I tried opening a media file in Windows 7, and accidentally associated a file (or all media files) to WMP while 64 bit player was default (since it was a fresh install of Windows).

I can confirm my video card and sound card (Soundblaster X-Fi Titanium) both work correctly. They've worked perfectly since I installed Win 7. I've double checked, and can confim my speakers are plugged in correctly.A few days ago, this problem began when I called Microsoft Support, to get help with getting Windows Media Center to stream to my XBox. As part of that trouble shooting, they had me go into Windows Media Player.This was the first time I opened Windows Media Player since reinstalling Windows.The very first screen I saw said that WMP 12 needed to be set up for the first use....and it prompted me to go with the default setup or to set it up with my own preferences.I chose default setup (it's been two years since this happened last time, and I'd forgotten about the bug).From that point that I selected default setup, iTunes stopped working. If I play a song (any song) in my iTunes catalog, the song just stays stuck at 00:00 and nothing happens.If I try playing a song in WMP, it shows that it's playing, but there's no sound.Meanwhile, if I go to Control Panel and click "Sound" I can see the equalizer showing that sound IS happening....but I hear nothing...whether we're talking system sounds, iTunes songs, Internet video etc.I've checked my file associations for WMP 12, and EVERYTHING is checked and I can change nothing as they're all checked and greyed out.