When Windows Media Player is your default (mp3) player, when you select mp3 in Windows Explorer (I'm on XP), there appears in the context-menu (top-most) a Play item.
Play queues the mp3 files & sends them to WMP - as a playlist (replacing any that may exist).
If instead of Play, you choose Open With..., the default action while still WMP, only a single file gets sent to WMP.
If WMP is not your default (mp3) player, there is no Play context-menu item, only Open.
Open opens (mp3) in your default (mp3) player.
(Though you still may have, “Play with Windows Media Player”, which also does what "Play" does.)
WMP must add Play.
&Play reads:
Code: Select all
"E:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmplayer.exe" /prefetch:6 /Play "%L"
Looking at, wmpshell.dll, it is described as, “Play with Windows Media Player”.
What /prefetch:6 does, I've not figured out.
%L would presumably point to a directory.
So, so, so... so I'm not sure?
Something throws a list of filenames into this /prefetch:6 "directory", which /Play %L then locks at & reads as a playlist? Got me?
In Everything, selecting a single audio: file does show “Play with Windows Media Player”, though once you select multiple audio: files, it no longer does - except in cases where the filetype is registered to WMP, where both Play & “Play with Windows Media Player” appear.
When you click "Enter", Everything must be performing an "Open".
And Open is different from "Play".
If you used the context-menu instead, selecting Play, in your case, WMP should open with your 20 files queued up in WMP as a playlist.
If you changed the action of Open in Everything from $exec("%1") to something like, oh not sure (& I'm not going to try), "E:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmplayer.exe" /prefetch:6 /Play "%L", maybe then you can "Open" a set of mp3's & have them play in WMP (but of course that would screw up "Open" for all other operations, filetypes).
Oh, there is also a context-menu item: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\WMP.PlayMedia\shell\play\DropTarget, value of {CE3FB1D1-02AE-4a5f-A6E9-D9F1B4073E6C}, which is "WMP Play As Playlist Launcher".