Windows – How to get Explorer to preview .m3u files as text

previewwindows 7windows-explorer

How may I get Explorer to preview .m3u files as text? I have tried Windows 7 – Preview other file types as text in Preview Pane and carefully checked, but no joy.

I got no success with .m3u using PreviewConfig:

1

or the manual method too:

2

Best Answer

  1. Start >> Regedit.exe

  2. Find HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.m3u key and check the 'Default' setting (in my case VLC.m3u)

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  1. Find HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\VLC.m3u (in this path substitute VLC.m3u with the value of your default setting in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.m3u)

  2. Create a new key in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\VLC.m3u: shellex

  3. Then in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\VLC.m3u\shellex also a new key: {8895b1c6-b41f-4c1c-a562-0d564250836f}, so it should look like this:

enter image description here

  1. The {8895b1c6-b41f-4c1c-a562-0d564250836f} key tells Windows that you want to use a preview handler, now you only should specify which one you want to use. Set HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\VLC.m3u\{8895b1c6-b41f-4c1c-a562-0d564250836f} Default to this value: {1531d583-8375-4d3f-b5fb-d23bbd169f22} (text handler ID)

  2. If you want to use other handlers in shell you can find their ID's in the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\PreviewHandlers

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