I suggest at least taking a look at WMP9, disabling all the "send stuff to Microsoft" features, and switching to the compact skin. It's not as bad as 7 or 8. And I am definitely not a Microsoft sympathizer.

Hmm, I'll keep this in mind for next time I reformat my machine. I have been using RealOne lately, since it can play almost everything, including Quicktime 6 files. Getting it to be a decent player involves quite a few option changes, but once it's set up, it works well.