Thank you. I've never heard of this. I need it for two things.
1.)I need to uninstall the latest version of Windows Media Player. There's no way to do that right now. This MAY offer that. Why? My WMP stopped playing any WMV files. It complains about CODECs despite the fact that I've downloaded and installed the latest CODECs. I don't know what the problem is, but a simple uninstall/reinstall should fix it.
2.)I'm making some virtual machines for VMWARE. They turn out HUGE if they're Windows XP and I don't need every component. I could shrink my virtual machines with this tool.
From Control Panel Add or Remove Programs, you can remove MSPlayer. It gives you the option to back up to the previous version (if it is still on your system). Go down the list of Add/Removes; it is listed as 'Windows Media Player 9 or 10'.
I had a problem with RealPlayer. It quit working when I tried a trial RA2AVI program to convert RealPlayer files. The RA program installed features of RealAlternative. RealAlternative replaces some RealPlayer files and RealPlayer will no longer work. Even after doing the uninstall, I had to do some utility searching and removing manually of a bunch of RealAlternative files. RealPlayer 9 and 10 would try to install, but would stall out. I finally had to install RealPlayer 8, which worked and said there was an updated version (10). I let it update, and now RP 10 is working fine.
I'm not sure why you lost the capability to play wmv files. WinAmp has a new version out. You might try it. Also, your associations might have changed (if wmv's open with another player). You might try updating the MSPlayer. I inadvertantly got 10 loaded but uninstalled and went back to 9.
[I thought I lost the capability to full-screen movie files. But 10 and 9 loaded with defaults checked. I found in an info forum that unchecking 'Enable full-screen mode switch' returned the full-screen capability.]
That is an =excellent= idea. I may try it. None of my PCs here will boot windows, but I have VMware for testing purposes.
If people really want to to get rid of the instability and virus attraction that is the windows world, I think they'd be better off abandoning microsoft and installing Linux.
For those of you who might complain that it's too hard for many people to learn a new operating system, I's answer that there are a lot of people out there who know next to nothing about windows either. They use their PC as not much more than a box for browsing and email. These people would barely notice the difference. You click an icon, and up pops a browser. Same goes for their email program. Heck, a full install of any of the major distributions will leave them with multiple browsers and email clients, a complete office suite, and much more.