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RealPlayer spyware blocking Introduction RealPlayer is a media player developed by RealNetworks, INC. It has some useful features like “toolbar mode” and jumping 10seconds forward and backwards, that VLC and WMP lack. Among other music and video formats, it can play proprietary “RealMedia” files. The suite also includes a Converter, video Trimmer and Downloader, however the privacy policy is far from acceptable (assuming you don’t use Google Chrome on Windows 10 anyway ): https://realnetworks.com/privacy-policy Preparations Blocking spyware of media players is significantly easier than of for example web browsers, because you can just block them with firewall (I’m not going to bother with the Downloader at all here). The problem is that the setup program installs many bloat services, startup programs etc. This means that you will have to prepare a Windows 7+ virtual machine, to download and install Real Player. Downloading offline installer The is also no offline installer available by default, but there is a trick, that allows you to download it: 1. Download the online installer from RealPlayer website (it is not larger than 2MB). 2. Boot the virtual machine that you’ve prepared. Do not connect it to the internet yet. 3. Transfer the installer to the VM. 4. Start the installation inside the VM. It will say, this: 5. Click retry a few times, until the window changes: 6. Click Restart Download, it’s a link to the offline installer! (note, that its size is about 65MB) 7. Connect the virtual machine to internet to complete the download Installation 1. Disconnect the virtual machine from the internet and run the offline installer. 2. Click Accept, disable all checkboxes. 3. Wait for the installation to finish. 4. Close RealPlayer. 5. Go to ”C:\Program Files (x86)\Real” and copy folder called “RealPlayer” and paste it somewhere else (don’t copy other folders) 6. Go to ”C:\ProgramData\Real\RealPlayer” and copy folders called “Database” and “DeviceProfiles”. Paste them somewhere else (don’t copy other folders) 7. Transfer the folder you’ve copied to your host PC and copy them respectively to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Real” and ”C:\ProgramData\Real\RealPlayer” of your host. 8. In “C:\Program Files (x86)\Real\ RealPlayer” remove “realupgrade.exe” and “Update” folder (auto update). 9. Search for .exe files in “C:\Program Files (x86)\Real\ RealPlayer” and block internet access for all of them using firewall. You can use OneClickFirewall program or my exported rules to speed up the process. 10. Launch realplay.exe. It will say, that is has to download something to complete the installation, but it’s not true. You can just click ok and the pop-up and it won’t show up again. 11. Go to settings in the main menu. 12. It’s recommended, that you change the default tab, when opening real player from discover screen (doesn’t work with no internet) to Library or NowPlaying. 13. Disable all checkboxes in settings\connection\internet, settings\library\Mobile Access, settings\library\stories 14. Congratulations, enjoy What I’ve written above was tested with RealPlayer v20.1 and can be subject to changes. Installation on Vista All trademarks are the property of their respective owners and are used here for identification purposes only.
