Thanks for your response Ronnie...this is kind of crazy stuff.  When I
clicked on .wmv in the Windows media player, it opened my video clips with
the windows media player, but I never did anything to the real player
"preferences" (ie I didn't unclick anything) - does windows remember the
last thing you clicked somehow no matter which player you were in (and it
ignores the previous one).

Also when I clicked the .wmv box in the windows media player and then opened
up real player later on, it immediately put up a message that I had changed
something in the real player defaults and asked me if I wanted to put them
back.  And then when I checked the media types in real player preferences,
it had itself checked (in one of the radio buttons) as the global default
for all media types.  Very confusing (.wmv was still checked in the sub
details - yet the windows player was overriding it).  Interesting at best.

Thanks again, and please reply back on any comments you have on my above
statements...Pete