V
*Vanguard*
Actually I do not get the "not responding" error. Apparently Windows 2000
(and not Windows XP) see that the program is doing something (although CPU
usage is neglible). Since multitasking under 95-based Windows is
cooperative rather than preemptive, may it won't wait as long or won't
notice any activity if there are long delays. The long wait is not unique
to me. I've seen other users complain about it.
The problem I and others encountered with RealOne Player was in installing
it *after* Spybot had been installed (and also the latest version of RealOne
Player). It may be that we never found all the registry keys used by SpyBot
in order to completely purge the registry after uninstalling SpyBot and then
try to reinstall it. The symptom was that no servers were listed from which
to retrieve the update. Presumably it would search around for the update
but it would still have to know where to search. I don't know if it uses
the server list or tries some hardcoded sites, but since there were no
servers in the list, and because the updates that you can manually download
don't include them, I couldn't get it to work (no server sites list = no
automatic downloads). I then tried to download the updates separately and
install them. No errors during the install but still no update datestamp
listed in Spybot, either. Since I did a fresh install of Windows XP and
have SpyBot installed, I won't be touching the RealOne Player again. Don't
need it. Maybe the potential problem can be averted if RealOne is installed
before Spybot ever gets installed.
One of my pet peeves about both Ad-Aware and SpyBot is that they never tell
you exactly what they intend to do to make a fix. They'll list a registry
key but you're not informed whether the key gets deleted, a different value
gets entered, or what. They also don't group fixes that are for the same
problem. A dozen keys might be listed for some DSO exploit in IE but you'll
see a dozen hits listed instead of one problem listed under which all those
hits apply. Basically the problem gets exaggerated by the number of hit
rather than showing the number of problems. Then you get them reported
somewhat bogus hits, too. They'll report about the Media Player unique ID
registry key (and offer to delete it) but they don't bother to check that
the program is already configured to not send the unique ID. I haven't
heard anyone claim that Microsoft is ignoring the user's preference when the
option to send the unique ID is disabled.
(and not Windows XP) see that the program is doing something (although CPU
usage is neglible). Since multitasking under 95-based Windows is
cooperative rather than preemptive, may it won't wait as long or won't
notice any activity if there are long delays. The long wait is not unique
to me. I've seen other users complain about it.
The problem I and others encountered with RealOne Player was in installing
it *after* Spybot had been installed (and also the latest version of RealOne
Player). It may be that we never found all the registry keys used by SpyBot
in order to completely purge the registry after uninstalling SpyBot and then
try to reinstall it. The symptom was that no servers were listed from which
to retrieve the update. Presumably it would search around for the update
but it would still have to know where to search. I don't know if it uses
the server list or tries some hardcoded sites, but since there were no
servers in the list, and because the updates that you can manually download
don't include them, I couldn't get it to work (no server sites list = no
automatic downloads). I then tried to download the updates separately and
install them. No errors during the install but still no update datestamp
listed in Spybot, either. Since I did a fresh install of Windows XP and
have SpyBot installed, I won't be touching the RealOne Player again. Don't
need it. Maybe the potential problem can be averted if RealOne is installed
before Spybot ever gets installed.
One of my pet peeves about both Ad-Aware and SpyBot is that they never tell
you exactly what they intend to do to make a fix. They'll list a registry
key but you're not informed whether the key gets deleted, a different value
gets entered, or what. They also don't group fixes that are for the same
problem. A dozen keys might be listed for some DSO exploit in IE but you'll
see a dozen hits listed instead of one problem listed under which all those
hits apply. Basically the problem gets exaggerated by the number of hit
rather than showing the number of problems. Then you get them reported
somewhat bogus hits, too. They'll report about the Media Player unique ID
registry key (and offer to delete it) but they don't bother to check that
the program is already configured to not send the unique ID. I haven't
heard anyone claim that Microsoft is ignoring the user's preference when the
option to send the unique ID is disabled.