How can I disable Windows Media Player's Native FLAC support?

Is there a way to disable Windows Media Player's new native FLAC support, so I can use external codecs such as LAV filters with it again, as well as 3rd party metadata plugins like WMP Plus?

When using the native FLAC support, basic metadata tags for flac files are not added to the library, such as the Year & Contributing Artist field - whereas WMP Plus imported those over without any problem... However they now refuse to work with WMP as it detects that WMP now supports it, so how can i turn that support off? I've disabled Windows Media Foundation but that's not made any difference for FLAC files, it's still playing those natively.

I know this is not the answer you want and I hate when others post "Why do you" Just answer the damn question....


However, I have found that using K-Light Codec Pack is an EXCELLENT alternative to the WMP.
It has the ability to play 100% anything and the Codecs are constantly being updated and are free just opt out of any promotions.
WMP Classic x64 has never failed me and can even play 4K videos with no lag, at least on my machine.
Get it direct from Codec Guide and not some 3rd party like softpedia.

Richard Shank said:

I know this is not the answer you want and I hate when others post "Why do you" Just answer the damn question....


However, I have found that using K-Light Codec Pack is an EXCELLENT alternative to the WMP.
It has the ability to play 100% anything and the Codecs are constantly being updated and are free just opt out of any promotions.
WMP Classic x64 has never failed me and can even play 4K videos with no lag, at least on my machine.
Get it direct from Codec Guide and not some 3rd party like softpedia.

Yes I know that... But that's not my question. I WANT to use a 3rd party codec for FLAC, but I can't because WMP decodes it natively now and I can't see a way to turn that off...

Jairus24 said:

Install K-lite, run codec tweak tool, there should be options there for what codec to use, set everything to LAV for both 32-bit and 64-bit.

Yes, there is, but not for FLAC.

bergqvistjl said:

Yes, there is, but not for FLAC.

Perhaps try contacting K-Lite developer, he might know something or add option.

See How do I disable Microsoft's native FLAC tag support in Windows 10? in the WMP Tag Plus FAQ. Note that this only affects tagging support. I don't know how to disable the native playback support.