when i try to open it (i tried clicking "open" in the box and "save" and then going to the folder and double clicking) i get a message saying "D:\MPSetup.exe is not a valid win32 application"

this is getting annoying lol

Thats weird getting that error as thats where I got wmp9?
Only other suggestion I have is to try to roll back to 9. WMP9 came with SP2 so to uninstall WMP 10 and roll back to WMP 9, you need to click show updates box at the top of the ADD/Remove Programs window for "Windows Media Player 10" to show up. Then click remove and it will ask if you would like to reverse back to MP9 - say "yes".
Note I havent tried this as I dont have 10.

Just another suggestion would be to reinstall WMP 10 on top of itself.

thanks for all your help, i rolled back mp10 to version 9 and enabled the miniplayer, i am now downloading mp10.
Jephree, i tried re-instaling version 10 but that didnt work
Thanks again for your help.

its working i now have w working miniplayer
Thanks
Mike

So glad its working for you now.

lol thanks, so am i