I agree that it doesn't look like RealPLayer is the culprit, but some piece of spyware.

But RealPlayer is nevertheless a fairly unpleasant pice or work that keeps phoning home and popping up "messages" for you when you boot Windows. In fact some people class it as spyware.
Most of its proper work (i.e. playing media files) can be done by Real Alternative (free download).

Anahata