I couldn’t agree more. A useful program from Real? Color me skeptical.
It's a shame too, because years ago I bought the hard-boxed version of Real Jukebox and really liked how it performed playing CD's ... straightforward, because I'm a simpleton and just want to play the damn CD, not be bothered with all this "favorites" and "skins" and all that crap ... then Real Jukebox started getting weird, making "suggestions" and such, and then began 'calling home' by linking with my browser which started getting pop-up windows directly related to Real Networks ... then it took over control of the CD/DVD player in my machine, which was the breaking point for me, EVERY media file it tried to become the 'default' program for.
So I laughed a bit and uninstalled it, then reinstalled it, this time by saying NO NO NO NO NO NO to every question during the install process ... that worked for about two weeks before it started taking control once again, this time without my consent ... and then began 'bickering' with Windows Media Player in a conflict which got so bad that the CD/DVD component would just lock up and not do anything but blink its yellow light rapidly. Uninstalled it again, but didn't reinstall again.
Shortly afterwards I got a new computer, a fresh slate as it were ... so figured that the earlier problems with Real Jukebox was related to old drivers and .dll's which might not have been fully cleared during the previous uninstall/reinstall's .... Nope, within two weeks on the new machine, Real Jukebox began doing the *exact* same thing! Taking over the computer, pop-ups, etc etc ...
Needless to say, anything from Real has become persona-non-grata on any of my machines. I don't need its aggravation, and I certainly won't pay for the privilege of its aggravation!
/k, rant off .... now can I say how I really feel about it? /laughs