"How did this junk get on my computer?" We see that all the time in this forum. Okay, here's one example, and a product to stay away from: Quoted from Spyware Weekly Newsletter 4/30/2004 http://www.spywareinfo.com/newsletter/archives/0404/30.php Real bad software Several months ago, the popular CarTalk radio show (National Public Radio) decided to stop providing audio recordings of their shows in Real format. This was due to many, many complaints from listeners about the obnoxious behavior of Real's software. Stung by the move, Real Networks claims to have cleaned up their act and has persuaded <http://www.cartalk.com/content/features/real/> CarTalk to change their minds. Many people are disgusted by Real's media player. It used to hijack file associations and make it nearly impossible to change them back. The web site deliberately made it hard to find the free version and provided misleading links to the pro version to trick people into downloading it. It would cause pop-up ads constantly and a past version even installed spyware. After reading about how Real responded to being dumped by CarTalk, I decided to check it out to see if they had indeed cleaned up their software. While they have made a few changes, I'm afraid that it is still an obnoxious piece of software. The free and paid versions now are on the same page (one click inside the site) and side by side. So the claim that they have stopped misleading people away from the free and toward the pro version is true. After clicking the download link, it went to a download page which somehow snuck a pop-up ad past FireFox <http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/>. Ironically, that ad was for the very program I was downloading. The program has stopped hijacking media associations. It asks if you want to associate music and video files with Real Player and it does honor your choice. It even asks you where to put program icons rather than just dumping them all over the desktop and quicklaunch bar. Sadly, these are the only good things I'll have to say about it. For one thing, by default, there are 4 different "contact me about stuff" options checked. Immediately after it finished installation, my firewall popped up four different times to tell me it was accessing the internet. I decided to log every firewall access to see what would happen. After an hour of playing music, the firewall logged an astounding 2,500 distinct internet accesses, and this was after I had gone through the options and disabled all of the "phone home" options. After installation, but before I could use it in any way, it demanded I fill out a survey! The questions asked my name, email address, home address, age, sex and zip code among other things. There was no way to use the program at all without filling out this unnecessary survey, which of course I filled out with false answers. The software has a "message center", which I assume is for displaying ads. It does allow you to disable the "message center" but it pops up an obnoxious warning box when you do so. It also has an updater that runs by default and installs updated software by default. You can disable this in options also. The EULA contains 6,854 words, all of which must be read in a small box that forces you to scroll down every couple of paragraphs. Buried far down in that license are the following tidbits: ... e) Secure Content Consumption: The RealPlayer client may be required to send statistical data to servers regarding the consumption by an end user of content secured using the digital rights management technology contained in this Software to protect the integrity of the content ("Secure Content"). This communication serves to enable the content provider to calculate usage-based royalty amounts needing to be paid to owners of such Secure Content ("Secure Content Owners"). . DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS ("DRMs"). ... a) The Software includes a DRM called the RealSystem Media Commerce Update Software ("Media Commerce Software") and may include third party DRMs as Plug-in components, which are subject to their own license agreements. ... RN is not responsible for the operation of third party DRM in any way, including revocation of your content. RN is not responsible for any communications to or from any third party DRM provider, or for the collection or use of information by third party DRMs. You consent to the communications enabled and/or performed by the DRM, including automatic updating of the DRM without further notice, despite the provisions of AutoUpdate defined in Section 6(c). You agree to indemnify and hold harmless RN for any claim relating to your use of a third party DRM. Secure Content Owners may, from time to time, request RN or its suppliers to provide security related updates to the DRM components of the Software ("Security Updates") that may affect your ability to copy, display and/or utilize the Software. You therefore agree that, if you elect to download a license from the Internet which enables your use of Secure Content, RN or its suppliers may, in conjunction with such license, also download onto your computer such Security Updates that a Secure Content Owner has requested that RN or its suppliers distribute. Unless notification is provided to you, RN and its suppliers will not retrieve any personally identifiable information, or other information, from your computer by downloading such Security Updates. ... c) The Media Commerce Software allows you to receive and playback content that has been digitally secured by a content provider. The Media Commerce Software interacts with your computer in the following ways: 1. Hardware information: In order to download the appropriate software, RealPlayer must send certain anonymous information about the hardware on your computer to the RealNetworks download server. Once the software is installed, information about your hardware will not be stored on any server. Hardware information will also be sent for content passes, as described below. ... Basically, it will install copy protection software which limits the way you can use content that you download or even content that you have purchased. This copy protection software will make internet connections without your knowledge and install other software, also without your knowledge. That by itself guaranteed its removal from my PC after this little experiment. Decide for yourself if you want to install software such as this on your property. Winamp <http://www.winamp.com/> will play every known type of music or video file except for QuickTime and Real and does it without being so obnoxious. QuickTime <http://www.apple.com/quicktime/> is perfectly acceptable for playing its file types and Cowan's Jet Audio <http://www.jetaudio.com/> will play Real file types without having to install Real itself.

Thanks Ranchand, Good info. I killed Real Player years ago when I first found out about all the junkware it installed on my puter. Apparently, there not worth checking into again. I use the player that came with my video card anyway, I also got a good player with my soundcard.

I'm not surprised....

Try Real Player Alternative. Works great for me. http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4094.html

Personally, I have always been happy with Winamp.

Ditto on the Winamp. Besides what's mentioned above, a couple of ISPs--AOL and Earthlink--automatically install Real Player when you install the ISP's software. It can be removed but, AOL for example, will keep nagging you at the sign on screen to reinstall it. Solarian

I had real installed for about a day several years ago. I got rid of it because of the file association thing (not to mention the poor quality of the media itself). I refuse to use any ISP that requires an installation disc of any kind. If you cant set it up through Windows or Linux, you dont need it.