"We find that RealPlayer 10.5 is badware because it fails to accurately and completely disclose the fact that it installs advertising software on the user’s computer. We additionally find that RealPlayer 11 is badware because it does not disclose the fact that it installs Rhapsody Player Engine software, and fails to remove this software when RealPlayer is uninstalled."

I'm blogging about this today because many of us have to deal with RealPlayer in our Windows environments. Though I haven't figured out a way to centrally administer the removal of the Rhapsody engine, I have figured out how to eliminate the Adware component.

Specifically, the Adware component is driven through a process called realsched.exe that you'll see in your Task Manager. If you attempt to disable realsched.exe, it will automatically restart itself after a certain period (sounds like Adware behavior to me). There are two processes by which you can prevent this from happening.

- 1. You can rename or delete the realsched.exe file in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Real\Update_OB.
- 2. You can create a Group Policy file path software restriction that specifically prevents this file from executing.

Once either of these two steps are done, once killed the Adware component of RealPlayer won't return.

So, here's my question: If you're a RealPlayer hater, what's your suggestion for an alternate media player? I've tried WMP and WinAmp, and prefer RealPlayer (with its idiosyncracies) to both.