[Blindtlk] Windows Media Player and WinAmp questions

[Chris Nusbaum]

Hi everyone,

I am having some problems/questions with/about Windows Media 
Player and WinAmp that I hope you can help with.

1.  Whenever I try to play a file from the Internet, either a 
live radio stream or a recorded MP3 or M3U file, it starts to 
play, then about 5 seconds into the file, a dialog will come up 
which says: "Windows media player dialog: Windows Media Player 
has stopped working.  Windows is trying to identify the 
problem...  Windows is checking online for a solution.  Close 
program button." I tried playing some music that was in my 
Windows Media Player library already, with the same result.  How 
can I fix this and what might be wrong with the player?
2.  After hearing good reviews from blind people about the 
accessibility and ease of use of Winamp, I downloaded the latest 
version of that program.  My friend told me that when I 
downloaded the program, WinAmp would set itself as my default 
player.  However, when I go to listen to a stream from the 
Internet, it still wants to play in Windows Media Player, but 
that doesn't work because of the problem I described above.  So 
how do I manually tell my computer to play everything in WinAmp 
by default?
3.  Is there a way in Winamp and/or Windows Media Player to 
control the volume of audio playing through the media player 
without effecting the volume of the whole computer? One of the 
problems I have when playing media files is that I can't do 
anything else on my computer while media is playing, as the audio 
in whatever file I'm listening to drowns out JAWS so much that I 
can't hear JAWS.  But if I press and hold the F9 key, it lowers 
the volume of all audio coming out of the computer; that of the 
audio file and that of JAWS.  So how do I lower the media volume 
without lowering JAWS's volume so I can listen to music in the 
background and still do something on my computer?
4.  (and final) How do I tell Windows Media Player to download a 
file from the Internet onto my computer rather than stream it? 
How do I do the same in WinAmp? I'm using the latest versions of 
Windows Media Player and WinAmp, Windows 7 and JAWS 12.

I hope you can help me with some or all of these questions! Sorry 
for the long email with so many questions to answer.
Thanks,

Chris

"The real problem of blindness is not the loss of eyesight.  The 
real problem is the misunderstanding and lack of education that 
exists.  If a blind person has the proper training and 
opportunity, blindness can be reduced to a mere physical 
nuisance."
-- Kenneth Jernigan