Well there you go.

The reason I prefer VLC is because it leaves your system alone. It doesn't change any system files or codecs, thus, giving you the option to use the system codecs or the build-in codecs that VLC has. Best of both worlds. ;)

What is VLC and where would I find it?

I didn't think that I had any control over Codecs and that different ones ran automatically depending on the software that I was using.

Also, I'm using 32-bit Win XP...

Here you go: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

Cool, thanks for the link. All I need to do is install and it will automatically take over everything like Big Daddy?



I'm betting with all bets that FFA snuck itself on my computer during a Steam installation.

You know how when you go to run a new Steam game for the first time but first they've got to put a bunch of crap on your PC before you can play.

"Before we begin, here's .NET even though you already have it, and here's some dusty old Direct X so you will just have to overwrite it again wtih new Direct X and let us not forget your umpteenth copy of C++ Run Time and as extra bonus here's Punk Buster to clog up things in the background and finally here's a third party match making client that you'll never use."

"Ta-da! There! Now you're all fucked up and ready to cry!"

What I meant is will the software take full responsibility for everything and turn off the silly stuff like FFA.

No it won't, since it doesn't mess with installed codecs and stuff. You can try to uninstall that Rad Tools stuff, it should remove the codecs it installed too.

By the way, for your previous post, the Visual C++ and DirectX are needed for the games actually, its great that they are being bundled with the games that require them. Although its Steam fault that the actual installers are being launched every time you start a damn game.

The DirectX installer is smart to check for previously installed versions, so it doesn't actually overwrite anything, it installs just the files that are missing (if any are).

The latest version of Visual C++ 2008 is 9.0.30729.4974.
The latest version of Visual C++ 2010 is 10.0.40219.
I'm not sure what the latest version of Visual C++ 2005 is.

If you have any double Visual C++ xx installations in Add/Remove, you can install the lesser one.

Thanks for the info. =D