WMP10 - oh help me Options

[turboinduction]

Ok lets start at the top and tell everyone whats wrong with my machine:

I have installed:
Win XP Service Pack 2
WMP10

Yes I know, I'm not supposed to have double negatives, but I do.

When I play any videos (asf most recent) I only hear audio and get the good ol black screen for video. However the same movie will play in Winamp just fine. Not that I need WMP for anything, but I like my things working. Having a black screen is just bull.

I have installed microsoft's latest codec pack, as well as K-Lite's package to cover every codec known to man. I dont have trouble with any video except with WMP.

Also, since we are on the subject. If you have a SWF file on your computer, what does it open in. On my old computer, I swear Flash/Shockwave PLAYER would open and play in its own little window. Now, it launches IE which lets me click 500 windows to get it to play because it has Active X and signed, and block this, and I FRICKING HATE SP2!!!

Please shed some light on the subject. Keep in mind I do build computers so saying big words is ok. Also, this means we can skip past the simple "you a computer moron" responses. Thanks all

-Ti