RealPlayer is a common memory for a generation. RealPlayer used to provide the most advanced media playback and processing functions at the time, and is installed on almost every single desktop computer. However, as the media technology keeps developing, there are many more alternative players that are way better than the RealPlayer. But when you try to uninstall RealPlayer from your computer, you could probably find that the player is not so easy to uninstall. So how to uninstall RealPlayer from your computer and what is the best alternative? Check out now.

Part 1: Does RealPkayer Still Exist?

RealPlayer was developed and released in the 90’s, which is already more than 20 years from now. As new streaming services like Netflix, Pandora, and YouTube thrive one after another, people start to forget about RealPlayer. Actually, for a desktop application, 20 years is already a pretty long time. So after 20 years, does RealPlayer still exist? Can RealPlayer still be functional in terms of media file decoding and playing?

In fact, impossible as it might sounds, RealPlayer does still exist. You can get the latest version of RealPlayer from its official website, and it will still be functional. What’s more, after 20 years, the RealPlayer now is almost nothing like the version that in our memories. They even developed versions of the app available for Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS to achieve a better compatibility and portability.

Apart from the basic media playback functions, RealPlayer nowadays also comes with a built-in file converter, which can convert your media files and make them compatible to iPad, Galaxy Tab, iPhone or other devices like Blackberry Storm, the Zune and the iRiver Clix. What’s more, RealPlayer now also provides a Premium version which is available for $5-a-month. The premium version of RealPlayer features even more functions like DVD playback and audio equalizers. You can also download YouTube videos with RealPlayer, but the downloading speed and the video quality are not very promising.

Part 2: Why to Uninstall RealPlayer

So since RealPlayer has now evolved to be a multifunctional media processing application, and it does look more decent than it used to be, why do we still need to uninstall the application anyway? Well. Despite the updates and the new provided functions, RealPlayer is actually still that old and chunky media player from the 90s. In the 1990s, RealPlayer was a fundamentally ambitious piece of software. It set the groundwork for how we would come to consume media, and in many respects, we owe it a massive debt of gratitude. But it was also a fundamentally flawed piece of software, whose execution didn’t quite do its lofty goals justice. 20 years later, little has changed.

As we can clearly see, the ambition behind RealPlayer is still there, but this time, it feels much less focused. By consistently adding more and more functions to the application, and not polishing each of the functions to perfection, the situation for RealPlayer is even worse than 20 years ago. Rather than do one thing bad in the past, RealPlayer now does many things badly.

As a media player, it’s slow and clunky. As a mobile app, it crushes from times to time. As a media converter, it supports only a limited number of media formats, and the output quality is way worse than professional video converter applications. Not to mention the DVD player which is extremely slow and the YouTube downloader is full of bugs. If you want media processing applications, there are tons of other great options. If you want to have a smooth media playback experience, there are also countless free media player applications out there waiting for you to download. So why keep this big software who cannot do everything perfectly?

Part 3: How to Uninstall RealPlayer

Another thing that the RealPlayer is complained about is the uninstall process. Even if you want to uninstall RealPlayer form your computer, you may not be able to completely remove the software from your computer. Therefore, a lot of people are suffering from being not able to uninstall and remove the RealPlayer from their computers. If you want to uninstall RealPlayer, you’d better do as the following guide says and make sure it’s completely removed.

Step 1: Before starting to remove RealPlayer from your computer, you need to make sure that RealPlayer is completely closed. You can check this by pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL and looking in the task manager under Processes for “real.exe” or “realsched.exe”. If you see one of them, select it and end the process. If you cannot find any of them, then that means you have already shut the application down and are ready to uninstall it.

Step 2: Sometimes ending local RealPlayer processes is not enough. If you have installed RealPlayer related extensions on your web browser like the RealDownloader, you also need to remove the web extension before uninstalling the RealPlayer. Open your web browser, find the “Extensions” area in the settings section, find the related extension and click the “Remove” button to remove it. Remember to remove the related extensions from all web browsers if you have multiple browsers installed on your computer.

Step 3: Close your web browser, then go to the Control Panel of your system, find the “Programs” section and click “Uninstall a program”.

Step 4: In the program list, find RealPlayer, select it and there will be an “Uninstall/Change” button appeared in the above. Click the “Uninstall/Change” button.

Step 5: After clicking the “Uninstall/Change” button, there will be a confirmation widow showing up, asking you whether you are sure that you want to uninstall the application. Click “Yes” to confirm and the uninstallation process should immediately begin. After uninstalling the application this way, if you still can see a RealPlayer folder in your computer, just delete the entire folder and empty your recycle bin.

Part 4: Free Alternatives to RealPlayer

After Uninstalling RealPlayer from your computer, you most likely still need a RealPlayer alternative media player to replace the old one. Here are three of the best RealPlayer applications that you can try.

Leawo Blu-ray Player

Leawo Blu-ray Player is one of the most popular free media player applications nowadays. As an 100% free video player that works on both Windows and Mac, Leawo Blu-ray Player is a perfect replacement for the RealPlayer of yours. The fact that Leawo Blu-ray Player can play almost every digital video format immediately makes it stand out from all of the rest players, let alone it can also play Blu-ray across region and all kinds of DVD materials in form of disc, ISO image or folder. What’s more, the player also comes with multiple thoughtful designs like Virtual remote controller, Useful power manager, Custom skin / language / background and Snap screenshots, making the video experience even more enjoyable. In the premium version of Leawo Blu-ray Player, you can even convert your Blu-ray or DVD to a lossless digital MKV video, giving you more possibilities for your media life.

blu-ray-player

Leawo Free Blu-ray Player 

☉ 100% free movie player for Windows & Mac users to play Ultra HD 4K, 1080P and 720P videos.

☉ Free Blu-ray/DVD player to play 4K disc, folder and ISO file, regardless of disc protection and region code.

☉ Support multiple audio decoding systems like Dolby, DTS, AAC, TrueHD, DTS-HD, etc.

☉ Adjust subtitles, video and audio during media playback.

☉ Serves as a powerful Blu-ray/DVD to MKV converter to convert Blu-ray/DVD disc, folder and ISO image to MKV with lossless quality and high speed.

VLC Media Player

As another free and open-source media player, VLC Player can work with almost all kinds of the popular video formats on multiple operating systems. For VLC, the supported formats include ASF, AVI, FLAC, FLV, Fraps, Matroska (MKV), MP4, MPJPEG, MPEG-2 (ES, MP3), Ogg, PS, PVA, QuickTime File Format (MOV), TS, WAV and WebM. It doesn't matter if you are using a Windows PC, a Mac PC, an iPhone or an Android device, you can get the VLC Media Player app on your device. Besides the media playback functions, VLC Media Player also comes with a great extendibility. By installing various add-ons, you can make the powerful media player even more powerful.

KMPlayer

KMPlayer, also known as K-Multimedia Player is also a free media player for Windows which can play a large number of formats including VCD, DVD, AVI, MKV, Ogg, OGM, 3GP, MPEG-1/2/4, WMV, RealMedia, FLV and QuickTime. It has a significant user base and has received strong ratings and reviews on major independent download sites like Softonic and CNET. KMPlayer is a versatile multi media player which can cover a various different type of contained formats. The player has its’ own internal Codec, so that you are able to play almost any media files without any other separate Codec installed. Additionally, KMPlayer also supports matrix function/normalizer function when internal sound codec is being used.

Part 5: Conclusion

RealPlayer was not a perfect media player in the 90’s, and it still isn’t today. One of the biggest troubles that people have about RealPlayer is that the application could be sometimes hard to uninstall. The key to successfully uninstall RealPlayer is that you have to quit the application completely, and remove the related add-ons from your web browsers as well. After that, you should be able to easily uninstall the application with the default uninstaller provided by the Windows system. If you need a replacement for your uninstalled RealPlayer, then Leawo Blu-ray Player is definitely one of the greatest choices because of its powerful media playback abilities and nice ease of use. There are also other players like VLC Media Player and KMPlayer, which are also much better than RealPlayer. With these replacements, I believe your media life will be much easier and more comfortable,