When I tried to play a tmp files with window media player, it says"Windows Media Player cannot play the file. The Player might not support the file type or might not support the codec that was used to compress the file." What can I do to play this file?

Your other note specified an MPEG file. Now you are saying a TMP file. TMP files are files created by other programs to hold information used during processing. They are not meant to be played and are generally deleted when the session is closed.

Hi,
It's best to use the same thread to ask more questions, regarding the same subject or anything close to it. In that way, the tread keeps all the other posts so experts will know what's going on.

TMP files are temporary files, and have extensions as .tmp, some have .temp, and are located in various Temp folders. They cannot be played.

You should also use the Disc Cleanup utility for your computer once in a while to get rid of these types of files. They will clutter up your hard drive!
Best wishes,
fredg

Open it with notepad and see if it gives a clue to what it is. That is if you REALLY want to 'play' it.

Some times some of the temp files are actually back ups of Microsoft word files. They uasually have a ~ at the beginning of their file name. If you open the most recent one in word, after a system crash. You might be able to recover some lost progress on what you were typing. By default word saves one of these files every 10 min.

I believe what Shawn is actually doing is downloading some videos through a P2P client. I believe some of them (cant remember which though) give the files .tmp extensions until the download is complete. Thing is, even partial mpegs tend to open and play. Migth be an idea trying AviPreview to see if that helps open the file - http://www.avipreview.com.

You could always try changing them to file extension that they were susposed to be. It worked for partally downloaded movies that give .avi.part at the end it might work for those files if they were once another file type.

VLC media player - Overview Try this player it might work