I recently DL a file from the video games forum that have the initials "RM" as the extension. However, neither Windows Media nor Winamp (I assume) will support it. Any idea what media players support this type of file?

That's a Real Movie ... To view it you need RealPlayer, which you can get for free at http://www.real.com :)

when I DL RealPlayer, will this affect me keeping Windows Media/Winamp as a primary media? If so, how do I keep Windows Media/Winamp as my primary?

WMA will still be your primary player for .mpegs, .avis etc, WinAmp for your .mp3s etc. RealPlayer will only play Real media files ... If anything changes, just go to preferences in WMA or WinAmp and set it to primary.

Actually, RM is RealMedia (since thats what they called it way back when it was only realaudio), there is realaudio, realvideo, and realmedia, but realmedia just puts them altogether.

As to answer the question, heres what I always do when I install the realmedia player.

I don't use RealOne player. I used it briefly but it pissed me off, so I went back to realmedia 8 instead. When you install it, you will be asked if you want it to associate itself with ALL supported types, which means several supported by windows media player.

Unless you want RM to be called for just about everything, say NO to that. I believe you have the option to select what RM will make itself default for. Only choose RA/RM files, nothing more.

If you f*ck up and accidently make RA the default for all, you can always fix this under windows media. I think what you have to do is go into the tools under windows media and turn the support types off (since they will still show as on), then back on.

You can make RA work with MPEG and so forth, but most codec work with windows media better than RA.

Just remember, if you select ALL DEFAULTS when installing real player, it will overwrite certain MPEG and other settings, so make sure that you manually configure the install. It won't come out and tell you everything, you have to look at all the configuration menus and turn options off, otherwise, real player will become your default player for many types.

Real used to be terrible for spyware, but I had heard recently that this had changed. I took a chance and downloaded RealOne and installed it. They used to have this file "tkbell.exe" that you could not kill from your startup profile. Annoyed the crap out of me.

Seems like they have rectified this though, so I will give it a go again.

Like the others said though, be very careful when setting it up. Choose the "Custom" install and check your settings very carefully.