If I had continued listening to all the Micro$oft bashing fanboys on this website, I'd never install this program. But, surprise...I did, and it runs very well on my G3 iMac 700. heres how i did it:

1) make sure your running the latest version of Stuffit Expander. If you dont have it...download it. you dont have to keep the shareware that comes with it.

2) run a permissions repair on your hard disk (disk utility- repair permissions)

3) download the WMP file, and open it up

4) turn off any programs that shouldnt be on while installing: web browsers, chat programs, games, internet software, etc...

5) run the installer. it asks for your password, go ahead and enter it. click "agree" on the EULA. the program begins to install

6) You'll notice the spinning beach ball after a few seconds. DO NOT force quit! Let it go. Its still searching your hard disk so it can install, it may take anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes. Read the Micro$oft news groups page...one person on there had to wait almost 5 minutes for the installer to finish scanning the drive (it took about 90 secs for me)

7) afterward, chuck the installer, then do yet another permissions repair. then run WMP. watch the demo, then turn it off.

8) go online,turn on a browser, and it should work just fine.

and for all the people with WMP issues:

1) video/audio: this most of the time isnt just the fault of WMP. I watched the same news video clip (of the pope) on 3 different websites, 2 of them ran the clip very well, while the third ran it just plain awful. complain to the site owner of your problem, it could be a bad WMV file on their site.

2) Recognizance problems: not all of us run Windoze with internet explorer. And, not all websites run under the latest web compliances. And, because of this, unless your running Windoze, it wont recognize your player. once again, complain to the site owner that some of us do run on Macs, and would like to view what they're offering. if they get enough complaints (besides the juvenile "micro$oft sucks kind) they'll get the picture and update their site.

All in all a great player, contrary to what others think. 4 stars.