I downloaded a copy of real player and now windows media player won't start and icon has changed. Real player is not listed in add/remove programs so I can't uninstall. What do I do?

If you simply wanted Windows Media Player to run all your media, open the Windows Media Player of your choice and go (depending on the version) 6.4 = View - Options - Formats (tab) and chose either "Select All" to have the media player to play all media or whichever one you want. And for Windows Media Player 7.x = Tools - Options - Format (Tab) and same rule applies there. Hope this helps you.

The windows media player icon won't open the player. So I can't change the format. Real Player is doing something so I can't get media player to work. What next?

What about going to C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player and finding the application there? If not, right click on an Mp3, and click on "Open With.." and pick the Media Player.

Are you saying you do not have a listing in Add/Remove for Real Player? if so, it's a bad download; normally it should not be interferring with Win Media Player, I have both and no problems. Real Player removal tool to deep clean all the Real Player files (read it all): http://service.real.com/realone/faq/r1p_010828_TAL_rap01408v.html Possibly what happened is your AV messed with the download, try downloading this way, it's safer: Downloading Tip: One other thing I do on downloading is, after you get the download (M$ does not structure its downloads so you can’t do this for some reason on an MS download), after download BEFORE YOU CLICK THE INSTALL ICON, #1. log off the net, #2. disable AV (right click tray icon), #3. then ctrl-alt-delete to close AV in close-program, THEN (and only then) #4. click on the install procedure. Otherwise your AV might read the install as an invader and mess with it. Then manually shut down for two full minutes. Thresher