Recently installed Xp home and it's been a bear customizing -coming from W2K pro.
Previously in 2kpro folders I would mouse over an audio icon or photo/video icon and it would play/show a preview on the left side without opening the file. A handy feature But I cannot find it in XP.
Can you help?
Thanks
Stu

Open Windows Explorer and choose Tools > Folder Options > File Types
Scroll through the list to find the audio file type you want to change. For this example, choose WAV
Click the Advanced button
Click the New button
For Action, type the word Preview
For Application, type the following exactly as shown without quotes:
C:\Windows\System32\Mplay32.exe /Play
Click OK > OK > Close
Now when you right-click on an MP3 file from within Windows Explorer, you will see a Preview option in the pop-up menu. To preview a file, right-click and choose Preview. To close the preview application, just hit ALT+F+X on your computer keyboard. It's much quicker and easier to audition audio files this way under Windows XP.

(Source (http://www.musicianstechcentral.com/articles/preview.html))

Okay, Quicker ? Not so sure. Prior to going XP, I was able to just put the mouse pointer on the icon -no clicking involved- and it would bring the preview player up in the left pane. This also was good for photos and video as well.

Quicker under XP... without this little trick, you most likely have to double-click the item and get it playing under Windows Media Player.