I get a lot of musical enjoyment by watching YouTube videos of traditional music. But it takes so long for videos to load. They play for a few seconds, then stop, the load for a bit more.

I didn't used to have this problem. I still use Windows XP (service pack 3), but my desktop is a good one. It has lots of memory and works well in every other respect.

I have checked Help and Microsoft support, and nothing helps.

A long time ago, before my computer had a a DVD player, a serviceman came to the house and put in the DVD player and installed software called Cyberlink Power DVD 7. Do you suppose that the problem arises because Cyperlink and Windows Media Player are duking it out behind the scenes?

Questions:

What software plays the YouTube videos? Is it Windows Media Player or something else?

Do other people have this problem?

Somewhere on my computer I saw the chance to 'make Windows Media Player the default player.' I hesitated to do that, but now I wonder if I should. Of course, I can't locate it now.

Any tips or just background wisdom would be appreciated.