Installing RealOne or RealPlayer

Okay, it looks like you need to install RealOne or RealPlayer. (RealOne is the newest version of RealNetworks' media player, replacing RealPlayer.)

No matter what your computer skill level, there are two VERY, VERY important things to know about this process:
1. RealNetworks wants you to BUY one of their players; but
2. A free player from RealNetworks will do just fine.
Obviously, as a publicly-traded company, it's in RealNetworks' best interest to get you to purchase one of their players. Their entire web site is designed to lure you into doing so, by making the most obvious links to click the ones that send you to their un-free player.

Now, we're not telling you that you can't purchase any RealNetworks products. They're a fine company and they make great products. If you want to pay for and download RealOne, go on ahead to the main RealNetworks site -- the link to download the paid version of RealOne is big as life.

But what we'll cover here is finding and starting to install the free version of RealOne or RealPlayer. (Important note: RealOne does not work on Windows 95, or on any other non-Windows operating systems (Macs, Linux, etc.) If your computer uses one of these operating systems, you must download RealPlayer instead.)

We'll start by launching a new browser window on the RealNetworks site. Keep this window and the new one open, and keep flipping back and forth between the two.

To launch this new window, and to go to the next page on the instructions:

Click here if your operating system is Windows 98, ME, 2000, or XP
Click here if your operating system is not one of the above