I don't use iTunes very often, but I noticed whenever I use it, it automatically makes iTunes my default mp3 player. Is there anyway to prevent this? Also, I noticed that "iTunesHelper.exe" and "IPodService.exe" is running all the time....Is there any way to prevent that?

I'd say uninstall itunes but to disable the itunerhelper and ipodservice from running:

Right click my computer go to manage
Expand services and applications
Click services
Look at properties of offending service and set it to disabled.

As for keeping it from taking over did you look at the itunes perferences and see if it has someplace to set what file types it should be the default player for. I know quicktime and windows media player work like that.

In the future, pay attention to programs when they install. Generally every media player I have seen has a "Use me as default" on install, including iTunes. It's easier to catch this on install then it is later.

To disable iTunes from reclaiming music files, go to Edit - Preferences and uncheck "Use iTunes as the default player".

As for the iPod stuff follow the service instructions above. The one you want to disable is "iPod Service". Doing so stops the iPod part of iTunes from working, but lets everything else work fine.

I personally have nothing against iTunes, as it is just as good/bad as most other players like WinAMP on how it behaves. I personally use it to listen to several internet radio stations. My empeg or Rio Receiver provide access to my personal music.

Just like every other mp3 manager, once you put a large number of tunes in there, it gets incredibly slow, even on my machine with 2GB of RAM.

Also, unless you want iTunes make copies of and move all of your music files around, you'll want to uncheck the "Keep iTunes Music folder organized" under Edit > Prefs > Advanced.

<wipes coffee from monitor>