People with Windows machines don't have that problem.

(gee, I've always wanted to be able to say that)

Gee Ted, that was helpful. :P

that depends, what have you tried already ?? sometimes you have to run the installer again to get a remove option .. then there are the actual unix/linux command line deletions if you want to rip things out .. lastly I'd google .. but why do you think you need to remove it usually you can just leave those things lying there and change the mappings so that the wmp files open with something else instead..

Steve - I tried trashing it - you know, drag it into the trash - but kept getting an 'in use' (even though it wasn't) and 'locked' (it wasn't) messages. I just want it to go away, period. It's taking up space on my Mac and I don't need it for anything. As for the UNIX/Linux thing, well that's way above my capabilities, unless you're going to walk me through doing it :-) - oh and btw, i did run the installer again ... if there was an uninstall option I didn't see it.

reasons why things are "in use"

either they're running (you can check with force quit)
or sometimes you have a process/window thats accessing
the file system and is holding the wmp open ..

what I'd do is as follows:
1. close all of the finder windows and subfolders (including
making sure the little triangle isn't showing the WMP files
inside the dir
2. reboot the machine
3. open your main hard disk
4. open the Applications folder
5. drag the whole Windows Media Player folder to the trash
6. empty the trash .. you may have to reboot to empty it ..

there is also a force trash key combo I think but I'd have to go look a bit ..

Steve - followed your instructions to a 't' ... some parts were deleted and others are still giving the 'locked' or 'in use' messages. Damned thing, be gone!

I've had to google on how to remove several different (normally spyware) programs from this computer. Gotta love those geeks!

No, Ted is right. It so damn complicated to deleting anything from a Windows machine that by the end, you'd be praying for a Mac.

I don't have any better advice then Steve's, or you could give Tekserve at call and ask them. 212 929 3645

which files or folders are "in use" ?? and are you sure they
aren't accidentally locked? (you can cmd-I them and
see if they've got a check mark in the locked box)

Ok, i googled for you .. it turns out it is the locked file problem .. there are a couple of threads on the mac forums about it:

http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-160499.html

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=1903874#post1903874

personally (being a long time unix geek) I'd do one of the
'rm -rf' forms .. (actually I'd rm the dir in the applications folder
instead of doing the drag to terminal thing) but if you're not comfortable with that, the 2nd article has a note about right-clicking and finding the files in the resource dir that are locked and then unlocking them, tedious but safer since the 'rm' command can be kinda dangerous if used incorrectly.

the instructions were a bit confusing .. if you choose to try the "unlock" method they say to right click (ctrl-click) on the folder, but you really have to do that on the wmp player icon to see the show package contents .. if you've already tried a delete, there should only be folders and the locked files left which may make it easier to figure out.

Come on Squip, we know you are a geek at heart - so use the power of Unix to destroy the evil empire.

1. Open a finder window and find the application (in /Applications?) or (if you are lucky) a folder containing the application (/Applications/Windows Media Player).

2. Open a terminal window (/Applications/Users/Terminal)

3. You want to be really careful with this next bit..... first we go to the directory and then secondly we remove (with extreme predjudice) everything below that point (including the application).... you will be asked for your login password...

If you had the folder in Step 1, then do the following:
cd /Applications
sudo rm -rf ./Windows\ Media\ Player
(Note that you can type part of the name (like "Wind" and press tab to get the exact name you need).

If you had a bare application, then:
cd /Applications
sudo rm -rf ./Windows\ Media\ Player.app
(Note that you didn't see the ".app" bit in the Finder but it is really there).

Now reboot your computer.

Problem solved. The reason that the reboot is required is that some of the bits of WMP are loaded (actually paged into memory) when the system boots and deleting the files doesn't really happen when you "rm" them (you simply remove the directoy entry for the file). The file(s) will be removed when they are cleared from memory (which you can do by rebooting).