RealPlayer categorised as 'badware'

Author: Gareth Halfacree
Published: 1st February 2008
Comments (24) Stumble
RealPlayer: very pretty, but comes with more than you bargained for says StopBadware.

RealPlayer: very pretty, but comes with more than you bargained for says StopBadware.

Anti-malware site StopBadware released an advisory yesterday alerting consumers to two perfidious pieces of nastiness that Windows users should be on the lookout for: RealPlayer 10.5 and RealPlayer 11.

The company claims that the packages, both produced by RealNetworks and shipped for the purposes of watching a window with a message in the corner saying 'Buffering...' for elongated periods of time, violate the guidelines they use to differentiate software from 'badware'.

RealPlayer 10.5 is accused of misleading users by not mentioning during the installation that the Message Center component will sit in the system tray and display advertising if the user hasn't registered the software.

RealPlayer 11 has the finger pointed firmly in its direction due to the inclusion of the Rhapsody Player Engine which is installed alongside the main application without user consent. Worse, if you uninstall RealPlayer you end up with Rhapsody left behind, unless you notice it in the Add/Remove Programs list and delete it manually.

In conversations with StopBadware, RealNetworks admitted that not uninstalling Rhapsody when RealPlayer is ditched was a mistake and point out in their defence that Message Center is only bundled with the older versions of RealPlayer.

Whether the company takes StopBadware's opinion seriously enough to modify its shady practices in future versions of the software remains to be seen.

Have you ever been irritated by software that comes with added extras, or do you plump for simpler alternatives? Let us know over in the forums.
Quote thecrownles 1st February 2008, 08:18
Nobody ever like realplayer in the first place. This is no surprise... it is just going the way of AOL from years past.
Quote badders 1st February 2008, 08:23
I haven't used realplayer for ~7-8 years. It's always been horrendous.

Real Alternative Cheesecake.
Quote zerolock 1st February 2008, 08:26
RealPlayer has been s**tware as long as I've have known of it's existence. So what's the news? :|
Quote Almightyrastus 1st February 2008, 08:48
The first (and only) time I ever installed realplayer i had no end of problems with my pc, everything from locking up to over use of memory. took ages to get rid of everything and all my settings back to how they were.
Quote Matt_117 1st February 2008, 09:24
Who uses Real though, seriously? Foobar for audio, WMP11 with DIVX for video, nothing else required.
Quote TheoGeo 1st February 2008, 09:30
Real player has always been terrible. There are plenty of alternatives for playing media files anyway. I don't think anyone i know has it installed.
Quote naokaji 1st February 2008, 10:00
realplayer was allready bloated like mad several years ago... i'm actually surprised they are still around.
Quote zerolock 1st February 2008, 10:10
Quote:
Originally Posted by Matt_117
Who uses Real though, seriously? Foobar for audio, WMP11 with DIVX for video, nothing else required.

foobar's nice for audio, but i would encourage you to try out cccp (combined community codec pack) as a replacement for wmp11 :)
Quote Brooxy 1st February 2008, 10:15
Quote:
Originally Posted by Matt_117
Who uses Real though, seriously?

I know two people who have used it until the last week or so. I set them back on the path of decent software, i:e. anything but
Quote airchie 1st February 2008, 10:22
foobar for audio, VLC for video ;)
Quote Carbon_Arc 1st February 2008, 10:29
I will NEVER install realplayer on any PC of mine, it is just an evil piece of crap. I like to spread the word about VLC whenever the subject comes up, and the usual reaction is "woah, this is so much better, why hadn't i heard of this before?".

GNU GPL ftw!
Quote zerolock 1st February 2008, 10:32
Quote:
Originally Posted by Carbon_Arc
I will NEVER install realplayer on any PC of mine, it is just an evil piece of crap. I like to spread the word about VLC whenever the subject comes up, and the usual reaction is "woah, this is so much better, why hadn't i heard of this before?".

GNU GPL ftw!

Too bad to disappoint you, but I've experinced VLC to be quite slow at loading files, a serious nuissance. :(
It could also do with some better skinning.
Quote cjoyce1980 1st February 2008, 10:55
windows media player just works has i want it to with xvid codec. dont need anything else.
Quote leexgx 1st February 2008, 11:37
realplayer bugs the hell out of me cant stand it been on my pc only time you used to need it if you was useing BBC web site for radio but now thay offer WMA streaming

BBCi player is poor as i had to close to have to reload my windows
Quote xion 1st February 2008, 11:51
Winamp, is Cheesecake! For video, it's my trusty media player classic, Have yet to find another diet player with timeshifting for badly synched video...
Quote Arkanrais 1st February 2008, 11:56
VLC is the best media player I've used but has trouble with 720p videos {of the wmv kind} (I've got a fair few from gamevideos.com). WMP plays them fine so long as there aren't any other things using much cpu power.

realplayer is so bad it makes me want to tear a hole in my foot.
but seriously I did just tear a hole in my foot (lost balance, foot landed on base of computer chair) ouch
Quote will. 1st February 2008, 11:57
Quote:
Originally Posted by zerolock
Too bad to disappoint you, but I've experinced VLC to be quite slow at loading files, a serious nuissance. :(
It could also do with some better skinning.

According to their wiki/site they are working on skins and full screen controls for their next major release. I love VLC for it's utter simplicity so unless they make a very minimalist skin I wont be changing a thing (I might be tempted by the full screen controls, but I know all the shortcuts now anyway, so it's not such a big deal.)
Quote legoman666 1st February 2008, 12:16
people still use Real Player? I haven't touched that steaming pile since.... win98? Winamp + VLC = Cheesecake. I have also recently started to like MPC.
Quote g3n3tiX 1st February 2008, 15:49
Lots of cheesecakes in this thread...
VLC for anything video + WMP for music
Quicktime for Apple HD trailers (to save them, offline they are watched with VLC.)
Quote E.E.L. Ambiense 1st February 2008, 15:50
God, Realplayer?

Foobar for audio; Media Player Classic for video.
Quote supertoad 1st February 2008, 16:34
Quote:
Originally Posted by g3n3tiX
Lots of cheesecakes in this thread...
VLC for anything video + WMP for music
Quicktime for Apple HD trailers (to save them, offline they are watched with VLC.)

google quicktime alternative. it's got a nice interface for downloading quicktime movies.
Quote -EVRE- 1st February 2008, 16:37
Should have included a poll to see how many people actually use realplayer!... I haven't touched real player in..... over 8 years?

RealPlayer has been malware since it hit the internet..
Quote Bluephoenix 1st February 2008, 16:43
Quote:
Originally Posted by zerolock
foobar's nice for audio, but i would encourage you to try out cccp (combined community codec pack) as a replacement for wmp11 :)

anyone who I've ever made install the CCCP has used that almost exclusively for video afterwards. Media Player Classic FTW!!!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by zerolock
RealPlayer has been s**tware as long as I've have known of it's existence. So what's the news? :|

Very True
Quote Edvuld 2nd February 2008, 09:10
I've been using WinAMP for the last 12 years for music, and for Video i use ZoomPlayer (Which comes with CCCP.) I don't think any player can beat the configuration possibilities of ZP.

RealPlayer is so bad ><
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