Cannot Play Microsoft Expression Encoder .xesc Files in WMP

I have always been able to play back Microsoft Expression Encoder .xesc Files in WMP, but it seems like a recent version of K-Lite has broken this functionality. The specific WMP error message is:

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.

I tried re-installing the Expression Encoder codec with no success as the installer reports that a version already exists.

I am currently running Mega pack version 15.4.0 on Win 7 Ultimate 64-bit, but the functionality may have been broken a few updates ago as I don't play back these files frequently. Any ideas on how to correct this?

Are you perhaps using the 64-bit version of WMP? It could be that the expression codec only works with 32-bit WMP.

You can try uninstalling the codec pack. If it still fails after that, it it is unlikely the fault of the pack.

It worked in 32-bit WMP. I'm guessing K-Lite changed the default to 64-bit? Thanks for the help!

During installation you can choose if you want to create file associations for 32-bit or 64-bit WMP.

64-bit has better decoding performance. So you could consider manually starting 32-bit WMP for the rare cases when you need to play these files.