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INSTALLING REAL ONE PLAYER
(without it taking over your life and computer)
The following tutorial describes how to install RealOne Player (as of January 2004), without it taking over your computer, spamming you, slowing down your system, or spying on you. Technically, there's nothing necessarily evil about what Real Networks does with RealOne, especially since they tell you everything in their terms, and if you like any of the features they offer that I instruct how to disable, fine. You may very well enjoy what they have. But if you like more control over your computer, and like to keep things neat and tidy and private, read on.
Using Internet Explorer on a Windows PC on Jan 12 '04:
1) Go to www.real.com. An ad pops up for RealOne SuperPass with a 14-day trial. Close that pop-up. We don't want that.
2) In the upper right hand part of the web page, click on the TEXT link to "FREE RealPlayer." (NOT the big button that says "Free Download," which is for a 14 day trial of the player you pay for.)
3) You'll then be taken to a page that again wants you to get the premium player with a big button that says "Download Now." Ignore that and look toward the bottom right for another text link that says "Download the Free RealPlayer." Click that.
4) Then you go to a page where Windows pops up a Security Warning window asking if you want to run and install "RealOne Player installer." (see image to left) In order to NOT have to be on the internet in the future to re-install, or to be able to carry the program on CD over to a low-speed friend's house, click No on the Security Warning. If that doesn't matter to you, click Yes, be patient, and go to step 11.
5) Click the RESTART DOWNLOAD button on the page still loaded on your screen.
6) A new page pops up advertising something like RealArcade. Ignore this and wait. A Windows File Download pop up appears, asking if you'd like to "Run this program from its current location" or "Save this program to disk." Click the little round button next to "Save this program to disk," and then hit the OK button.
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7) Now a "Save As" dialog box pops up. Click the little down-pointing triangle in the box labeled "Save in:" to make a list drop down showing the various storage options on your computer. (See image to left.) Click on "Desktop" at the top, then click the Save button.
8) Now begins an approximately 9 MB download. On modems this will take forever, on a nice cable modem it's done faster than I can type this sentence. Ain't broadband sweet?
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9) Close your browser and any other programs you have running. Look around on your desktop, amid the other things you don't mean to have there, for the RealPlayer icon. On my system, it looks like this:
10) Double click that icon to begin installation, whereupon it says "Preparing to install RealPlayer," and you wonder why it just won't get on with it.
11) After a few moments, up comes a chance to read the End User License Agreement. It's fascinating to read if you have the time and have a paranoid streak like me. They mention a link to a privacy policy, and they mention third party software that comes with this program, but basically, for 99.9% of us, hit Accept, and get on with life.
12) Next window asks you to select your connection speed. Except for possibly setting an upper limit on how fast a clip can go, I'm not sure how useful this can be, since dowload speed of a clip or stream is decided by the content creator, or is changed dynamically as you either keep up or drop out bits while playing. But basically pick how fast you are SUPPOSED to be able to go. If you are on a modem (lots of buzzing and boingy sounds when you get on the internet and you can't use your phone?) Choose "56.6 Kbps." If you are on DSL or cable, but don't know your alloted speed, pick "DSL / Cable 512 Kbps." Comcast here does 3 Mbps, so I pick "T1 1.5 Mbps". Then click Next.
13) Next window is "Select program location and desktop settings." Unless you have a good reason to change it, let the Install location stay the same. Uncheck ALL of the Desktop settings in the lower half of the window. You don't need any of that. Then click Next.
14) Next window, Installation, a progress meter comes up. Wait patiently.
15) Next window is the Default Media Player selections. Although RealOne is a right fine media player, if you are already happy with your mp3 and CD player, uncheck "MP3." (I use Winamp, so I uncheck it.) RealOne will play mp3s just fine, if you don't like your mp3 player or can't seem to get one to play. If you like your current DVD player, uncheck "DVD." I like my WinDVD, so I uncheck it. If you do special things with WAV files like recording and editing like I do, or if your mp3 player plays them fine for you, uncheck "WAV Audio." If you like what plays your "MPEG and AVI video" (downloaded movies and videos) files, uncheck that. MIDI and mp1 sort of files are rarely used, so you can uncheck that. This will leave RealOne only registered to burst into action when you encounter a file encoded especially for it, or registered to nothing else. (explain) If you know alot about file types, click advanced, but if you knew that much you wouldn't be reading this. Click Finish.
16) After a few blips of thingamajigs, a window comes up asking about Real Toolbar. Click "Disble this feature" at the bottom and click Continue.
17) Next window is for product registration. Put in whatever e-mail address you like, but I recommend at least using a "junk" online account that can receive spam without bothering you. Another nice idea is to enter privacy@example.com . (example.com is a fake domain name that accepts mail and passes it to the ether...) Enter a password, but NOT one you use for anything important. You will likely never ever need to use it for this program again. Pick your country, and language, and lie about your zip code or tell the truth, no big whoop. Pick a gender, pick a birth year (oh, if it were that easy in real life). UNCHECK all of the checked items. Click Create.
18) It contacts RealNetworks.... Now a window for "Choose Your RealPlayer Setup." Choose "Basic Setup." Don't worry about the 99 cents per track Music Store item, you don't ever have to use that. Click Continue.
19) Now it's on and pops up big and loud. Click the stop button square on the player to the left to shut it up. Then a page begins to load in the Real Player mini-browser that you don't need. You may see a pop up asking if you'd like to run and install "Macromedia Flash Player 7..." If so, say No. Then close the useless mini-browser with its close button (x in a circle, see image to left).
20) Now the player gets smaller, but there are still annoying things to kill. Click on View on the menu bar at the top and uncheck Show Related Info on the drop down menu.
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21) Click the tiny double-chevron on the menu bar (image at left, in red), then click Tools on the menu, then click Preferences on the sub-menu.
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22) There is a list of settings categories on the left, and details on the right (see image at left). Click "Playback Settings" on the left. The PerfectPlay feature of RealOne is one of its big pluses. This allows RealOne to work like a TIVO, where you can pause live streams and not miss anything. Extra cool. You can bump up or down the number of minutes it buffers, depending on how long you take in the bathroom, or you can disable it if you like to live for the moment. I love it.
23) Click on "Internet / Privacy" on the left hand menu under "Connection." Uncheck everything that is checked. None of it is useful, and some of it is annoying.
24) Click on "My Library" on the left hand menu. Follow me closely on this one. Check "Checked Watched Folders for new clips every..." then UN-check "Include commonly used media folders." Now UN-check "Checked Watched Folders for new media clips every..."
25) Click on "CD" on the left hand menu. Uncheck "Start Playback" and uncheck "Prompt to Save CD." Although this is technically moot if you unchecked all the Defaul Media Player selections in step 15, it doesn't hurt to double check.
26) Click on DVD on the left hand menu, and uncheck "Start Playback" for the same reason as the previous step.
27) Click "Content" on the left hand menu. If you are hearing or visually impaired, the Accessibilty section on the right has two check boxes that may be helpful for content creators who can and do include such additional info as supplemental text and descriptive audio.
28) Click on "Automatic Services" on the left hand menu. Click the Configure Message Center button on the right hand side. A Message Center Preferences window pops up. Uncheck everything checked, and click OK. A Real Message Center message pops up to warn you that you are choosing to not receive their junk. Click Yes and smile. A pointless Message Center window is sitting there now empty. Click the X in the upper right to close that window.
29) Back to the preferences window... Click "AutoUpdate" on the left hand menu. Uncheck "Automatically download and install important updates."
30) Finally, click OK in the bottom right of the Preferences window.
31) Back to the actual player.... Click View on the menu bar, then click Album info on the drop down menu, then click Hide on the sub menu.
NOW... If you don't mess with anything else, and don't click anything you don't need to click, RealOne Player will pretty well leave you alone, and not take over your system. Using the play, pause, skip forward, skip back, slide forward, slide back, and vloume controls is fine.
Now you can happily listen to the Lee & Wolfe show on Z100.5, or Steve and Johnnie on AM720 WGN, or watch NASA Mars rover mission briefings on NASA TV.
Close the program, and from now on when you click a link to anything made for RealOne Player, it will pop up and play it. When done, close it.
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