Registration Flags
[The feature associated with this page, Windows Media Player SDK, is a legacy feature. It has been superseded by MediaPlayer. MediaPlayer has been optimized for Windows 10 and Windows 11. Microsoft strongly recommends that new code use MediaPlayer instead of Windows Media Player SDK, when possible. Microsoft suggests that existing code that uses the legacy APIs be rewritten to use the new APIs if possible.]
When the Windows Media Player Plug-in Wizard creates a new UI plug-in project, it creates a key in the registry that contains information about the plug-in. This key is created in the following location:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\UIPlugins\{ClassId}
ClassId is the class id of the plug-in.
This key includes the following values.
| Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Capabilities | REG_DWORD | A DWORD value that consists of at least one plug-in type flag that may be combined with one or more plug-in capabilities flags by using binary OR operations. |
| Description | REG_SZ | A string that contains the description of the plug-in. The plug-in wizard creates a string resource and provides the URL of the resource (using the res protocol) for this value. |
| FriendlyName | REG_SZ | A string that contains the user-readable name for the plug-in. The plug-in wizard creates a string resource and provides the URL of the resource (using the res protocol) for this value. |
| UninstallPath (optional) | REG_SZ | A string that contains the path to an executable file that uninstalls the plug-in. |
For more information about the res protocol, see the Internet Development SDK.
The following table details the plug-in type flags.
| Plug-in Type Flag | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| PLUGIN_TYPE_BACKGROUND | 0x1 | The UI plug-in does not display a user interface. |
| PLUGIN_TYPE_SEPARATEWINDOW | 0x2 | The UI plug-in is a separate window plug-in. |
| PLUGIN_TYPE_DISPLAYAREA | 0x3 | The UI plug-in is a display area plug-in. |
| PLUGIN_TYPE_SETTINGSAREA | 0x4 | The UI plug-in is a settings area plug-in. |
| PLUGIN_TYPE_METADATAAREA | 0x5 | The UI plug-in is a metadata area plug-in. |
The following table details the plug-in capabilities flags.
| Plug-in Capabilities Flag | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| PLUGIN_FLAGS_ACCEPTSMEDIA | 0x10000000 | The UI plug-in can accept Media object pointer arrays when Windows Media Player calls IWMPPluginUI::SetProperty . |
| PLUGIN_FLAGS_ACCEPTSPLAYLISTS | 0x8000000 | The UI plug-in can accept Playlist object pointer arrays when Windows Media Player calls IWMPPluginUI::SetProperty . |
| PLUGIN_FLAGS_HASPRESETS | 0x4000000 | The UI plug-in uses presets. If the plug-in specifies this flag, Windows Media Player will query the plug-in for preset information by calling IWMPPluginUI::GetProperty . |
| PLUGIN_FLAGS_HASPROPERTYPAGE | 0x80000000 | The UI plug-in provides a property page dialog. Windows Media Player will call IWMPPluginUI::DisplayPropertyPage if this flag is set when the property page is invoked. |
| PLUGIN_FLAGS_HIDDEN | 0x02000000 | The background UI plug-in does not appear on the Plug-ins menu that is accessed from the View or Tools menus or the Select Now Playing options button in Now Playing. It does appear on the Plug-ins tab of the Options dialog. It does cause the Background Plug-in Running icon to appear in the status bar.This flag has no effect on plug-ins other than background UI plug-ins. |
| PLUGIN_FLAGS_INSTALLAUTORUN | 0x40000000 | Windows Media Player runs the UI plug-in automatically when the plug-in is installed. |
| PLUGIN_FLAGS_LAUNCHPROPERTYPAGE | 0x20000000 | Windows Media Player calls IWMPPluginUI::DisplayPropertyPage when the UI plug-in runs for the first time.If this flag is specified, PLUGIN_FLAGS_HASPROPERTYPAGE should be specified also. |
The following constants are defined in wmpplug.h. Do not change the values associated with these constants.
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| PLUGIN_INSTALLREGKEY | The location of the plug-in registry key. |
| PLUGIN_INSTALLREGKEY_FRIENDLYNAME | The name of the friendly name value. |
| PLUGIN_INSTALLREGKEY_DESCRIPTION | The name of the description value. |
| PLUGIN_INSTALLREGKEY_CAPABILITIES | The name of the capabilities value. |
| PLUGIN_INSTALLREGKEY_UNINSTALL | The name of the uninstall path value. |