ARGH! My girlfriend installed REAL PLAYER on my machine!!!

[Elidor]

I was at work and she was determined to watch the shuttle lift off (and I know darn good and well there was a feed for media player), so she somehow managed to install the hated Real Player on my computer. Nobody hates Real Networks more than me, and I believe she's heard me rant and rave about them before.

It appropriated about 35 file associations for its own, including all audio, video and dvd files. It also installed stupid extras, like a weather program and a link to games. So, the question is:

What should my girlfriend's punishment be?

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

1. One week's banishment to a Windows 95 computer

with only 8mb of memory and a 256 color graphics card.

Yeah, that'll teach her.

[mtnester]

14. Better yet, an old Apple with a bootable 5.1/4 floppy

that will teach her.

[RC]

2. What other dumb things has she done?

No one loads programs on my computer except me and I don't load programs on theirs without their permission.

[eataTREE]

3. Banished from your computer, of course.

Set or change the password on your account. Delete or disable her account. If she wants to install RealSpyWare, let her do it on her own computer.

There is one thing in life that I am openly and unapologetically a territorial dick about, and it's my 'puter. Mess with it and suffer.

[FormerDittoHead]

4. Have her reinstall Windows and everything...

It's only right she undo the damage, and there's no other way to rid yourself of the RealVirus...

[Elidor]

5. Man, you guys sound harsh

I have to live with her and keep her happy. I undid manually what I could, but I have to admit, my computer is tainted now. I'm contemplating a wipe. God, what a pain that will be. I have software where the manufacturer requires the motherboard's ID just to give me a one-time serial...

I can't get mad at her. She's got my number. Maybe I'll penalize her some other way...
:evilgrin:

[patricia92243]

6. I know zilch about computers, but RealPlayer did all that? I have it on

my computer and would not know it existed except when I sometimes stream AAR.

People are more important than things. Keep let the girlfriend, and let the 'puter go hang.

[hobbit709]

7. Uninstall RealPlayer

Download and install Real Alternative. It does everything Real Player does without hijacking all the file associations.

[patricia92243]

8. Will it stream AAR? n/t

[LiberalUprising]

11. Yes it will stream AA

Sometimes I have to click the Windows Media button but Real Altenative will play both, along with quicktime files, just set the file associations to the ones you want it to play.

I have not had to update or look for codecs since using it and have not had a video it has not worked it with since I D/ loaded it several years ago.

Real Alternative will allow you to play RealMedia files without having to install the official RealPlayer. You do need a media player that is capable of playing RealMedia files. The included Media Player Classic supports it. Supported are RealAudio (.ra .rpm), RealVideo (.rm .ram .rmvb), RealText (.rt), and ReadPix (.rp). Not fully supported are: Streaming smil files (.smi .smil) and Realmedia embedded in webpages.

http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/1054136293/1

You can also download from above page

[Elidor]

9. Sounds interesting. I'll check it out

[MH1]

13. Really dumb question.

Isn't it fairly easy to change the file associations back? It's nasty when software hijacks them, but if that's the only problem it hardly seems worth deinstalling and installing something else.

Guess I'm missing something... :shrug:

Can you enlighten on the "spyware" allegation? That concerns me more than the file associations.

[miss_kitty]

10. System restore

Before I realise what shitty bullshit datamining bullshit the later versions of Real were, I upgraded the old jalopy to Real10. No matter how often I unchecked the "begin at startup" box and the "no fucking cookies!" box i still got it on startup (Yes I ran 'msconfig' and unchecked it there) and cookies-even though I was denying cookies. I did a system restore. Problem? Problem solved.

[Ouabache]

12. I'd say she owes you a 3some with a hot gf of hers

but I don't think posts like that are allowed on DU.
But it only seems right.

[The Revolution]

15. Real Player is awful

I remember once in college a friend of mine asked me to look at his computer, because he was having problems with MS Word. Basically, he couldn't open any files.

So I looked at it, and saw Real Player was installed. I uninstalled it and Word started working again. :)