I was referring to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Media_Audio which says,richard mitnick wrote:Alice-
You wrote, ".WMA files are specifically "Windows Media Audio" files and I wouldn't think of associating them with anything but Windows Media Player,"
I don't know why you would feel that way. Winamp and Real will both play WMP file types just fine.
I tend to keep things "simple" by associating Windows Media such as ASF WMA and WMV with Windows Media Player. Same with Real Media -> Real Player. I already included this link in my earlier post, where it was reported that associating Real Player with Windows Media Video (wmv) files can result in errors if you have the WMP plugin, since the WMP plugin is set up to handle those files by passing them off to the default player and errors can result if the default isn't WMP.Windows Media Audio (WMA) is a proprietary compressed audio file format developed by Microsoft.
I just tested associating WMA with WinAmp, and although clicking a .wma link does open WinAmp, the file will not play unless I first change my Firefox preferences and change the action from "use the plugin" to "open with the default application". That wouldn't be an issue for you since you don't have the WMP plugin but I see no reason to go through that, in my case since I'm perfectly satisfied letting WMP handle both WMA and WMV files.
I guess it's time for me to stop watching this thread since all the issues in your original post are resolved and it's now gone off-topic into discussions about how to associate file types with media players, which players should be used for which files, etc.