I have downloaded quite a few

.avi and .mpg files

but every so often windows media player can't play them
claiming that

"class not registered"?

the microsoft help pages are not forthcoming with info on this
problem.
trying to play the same files with real media player also does not
work. there is no clear error message from rmp, though.

why do these files that people are sharing on gnutella do not
work for some?

can someone help out here?
best, s

tech details
i run win98se
winmediaplayer 9
realplayer10

after browsing for a day i found the answer
to this problem. only posting this in case
people may want a quick fix...

if the video files (.avi, .mpg) do not play
because "class not registered" then you
most likely need to download the

divx codecs. divx is now up to version 5, but backwards
compatible. i got mine here


www.xvidmovies.com

they also have a helpful faq page.