"infidel" wrote in message
...

I presently use 98SE.
Now a complete hardware and software rethink seems to be required.
Am I forced to have WMP11 or any WMP installed on my machine?

The main question in any "rethink" must be:
What do I want to do that Win98SE does not permit?

E.g. 1: You might buy a new printer for which WinXP
drivers were essential, i.e. which could not run under Win98.
Up to now, this has hardly happened: but it may in future.

E.g. 2: You may want to use data files for which no
Win98 application exists. This seems not yet to have
happened for videos (WMP etc.) PDFs may be likelier,
according to recent reports (that (a) Adobe Reader version
7 is XP-only i.e. will not display OK on Win98 PCs,
(b) some government departments have begun to issue
essential documents (e.g. tax information) in PDF.v.7.)

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)