I am trying to stream live audio from a radio show and get the message of "extra pluggins needed".

What version has the least amount of useless trash, is simple/dependable and will work with Vista?

I don't get a choice when I select "get pluggin". If there is another choice, what is it ?
thanks

I run what I think is the latest version for XP Pro, which I think is version 11. Never had anything yet not play, but I do have automatic updating, and it does its thing!

Might have to contact the website admin or look closer on the website to see what format they are streaming in. It could be a real audio format or something proprietary. I am not aware of a single player that will handle all the codecs even if they claim to. Just read the eula's and manually configure any installs if you have the option to make sure they aren't sending back an identifiable information about you or installing "addons" along with their player.

XM Radio. I'll see what they say. I never thought about that.

looked this up on the xmradio online faq's:

What are the system recommendations for listening to XM Radio Online?
XM Radio Online is available to both PC and Mac users. Different system configurations will yield different results. We recommend the following system configurations:

PC:
Internet Connection: Broadband
Processor: Pentium III 1 GHz
Memory: Minimum 256 MB RAM, minimum 64 MB Video RAM
Operating System: Windows XP
Sound: Soundcard w/ speakers or headphones
Additional Software: Windows Media Player 10, Flash 7
Browser Compatibility: Internet Explorer 6+, Firefox 1.0+, Netscape 7+ (Opera not supported); cookies must be enabled

I think vista already came with media player 11 or its for sure on the windows updates. Do you have the flash player? Here's the link to the latest version of flash which is 9 now. It also says later on in the faq's some firewalls may need to be configured to allow xmradio online to play, but doesn't say what ports or protocols need to be opened.

Thanks Sujada! Excellent research! I have MP 11, and guess I'll install it. I have flash player, already, too.

Thanks again for y'alls help!