Start by installing RealOne (the latest version), and once that's done, go into the options and set all the privacy-related options so they work in your favour. I won't explain these in detail here, because they should be pretty obvious.

Next, set the startup option for "My Library" instead of "web" so the player won't needlessly check the Real website on start. You can find this in the options dialog.

Then do a spyware check using AdAware 6 or Spybot Search and destroy to remove any spyware. Gator may be installed somewhere along the line. Do a search for Gator in the c:\program files\common files directory, as things tend to hide in here and it's a directory most people don't think to look in.

To stop the annoying helper app, go to the c:\program files\common files\real\update_ob and delete the realsched.exe, rnathchk.exe, and realevent.exe files.

Finally, if you want to be extra drastic, stop RealOne from phoning home by creating an entry in the hosts file to point real.com to 127.0.0.1 - I have NOT done this and it seems to work fine without any spying issues.

Now you should be able to use RealOne without any annoyances. It seems to have worked for me over the past few months.

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by MacGyver edited by corster
last modified: 2003-03-25 22:21:14