I used to insert music into some emails such as sending birthday greetings. Today I went to Format then Background and Sound, chose the tune I wanted, clicked OK but there is nothing there. No tune (midis) - nothing. I did a restart but still nothing. I have Windows Media Player as my default player for midi files and they play fine there but just won't go into the email. Using Outlook Express. Any ideas?
(Edited for spelling errors. )

Hi Annie,

OE shows .wav files from c:\windows\media by default... to see the .mid files, you must select this kind of files from the drop down menu. Also, check if they really are in the folder OE is searching for.

You may also check this:

<Start/Settings/Control Panel>;
Select <Tools/Folder Options> File Types tab;
Scroll down to the MID and MIDI extensions, Highlight the file types;
If it shows Windows Media Player, it's OK, otherwise, click Change under Details.
Select Windows Media Player under Opens with. Click OK.
Now click Sounds, Speech and Audio Devices.
Select Sound and Audio Devices, click the Audio tab.
Make sure Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth is selected under MIDI music playback.
Click OK.

Let us know how it goes.

Chris

Thanks Chris, I did everything as instructed but it still won't play the midis. It will play the wav files but I like to send midis cause they are small files. What could have changed in my computer to have messed up this simple feature? (or at least it used to be) I've always been able to do this for years. I'm really stumped!

I did have to change a couple of things in the loooong list to the Windows Media Player but the other thing in the Audio section was where it should have been set as Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth.

Any more ideas?

Make sure in Tools, Options, Security that "Do not allow attachments to be saved or opened that could potentially be a virus." is unchecked.

Thank you Jim but that didn't work either.

I've often done this and I can't understand why all of a sudden it won't put the midis in the email.

The wav files work but not the midis. I've never sent wav files with emails and don't intend to do so but I would really like to figure out why the midis won't go there now.

Not sure I understood your latest post, so let's see how mine is set to embed .mid files in OE (you may have "Rich text (HTML) format active):

<Start/Settings/Control Panel>;
Select <Tools/Folder Options> File Types tab;
Scroll down to the MID and MIDI extensions, Highlight the file types;
If it shows Windows Media Player, it's OK, otherwise, click Change under Details.
Select Windows Media Player under Opens with. Click OK.

Click to view attachment

Now click Sounds, Speech and Audio Devices.
Select Sound and Audio Devices, click the Audio tab.
Make sure Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth is selected under MIDI music playback.
Click OK.

Click to view attachment

In theory, using these settings, Windows may override any WMP settings for this purpose (I guess).

Chris

Hi Chris,

After I had set to your instructions it still wouldn't work. Out of frustration I looked a bit deeper (pressed more buttons) and I found in the second photo you posted, where you have the arrow pointing, the volume had somehow been set to mute so I turned it up and there it is. It was a volume problem after all. I don't know how that could have happened cause I've never messed with any of those settings before but it's all fixed now. I'm back in the music business again. YAY!! Click to view attachment

Thank you for your help.

I've had programs ocassionally mute the volume of one device to prevent it from interfering with another device. Maybe once a year???

Glad you got it sorted out.

Jim, I'm convinced computers are entities. They are alien life forms and they are ALIVE!!!