"MCSTRM"

This goes back to upgrading realPlayer to v10.5 last week..and my apologies for any incorrect vernacular. Using WinXP as OS, FWIW.

First reboot after upgrade, I started seeing "New Hardware" prompts for "MCSTRM"-then the Installation Wizard pops up. No new hardware was installed, so I searched for "MCSTRM" and found it in the System 32 folder.

I go to Real.com support forums and ask what this "hardware" is. I am offered links to MCSTRM topics; which seem to suggest it's at least undesireable, if not some type of spyware. I ask if it might be wise to uninstall RealPlayer, and was advised so. Nobody seems to know how it got there, although its' properties show it as "RealPlayer Virtual Path Manager". I subsequently uninstalled it and deleted every file and folder pertaining to Real.com-including the aforementioned. I disabled System Restore, ran Spybot, Ad-Aware, Norton Anti-Virus, and McAfee Stinger. I did a cache clean-up and checked files for any cookies. But I still have prompts to install "MCSTRM' and search for hardware.

My questions are these: 1) How can I delete "hardware" that seemingly doesn't exist to stop these prompts? 2) What exactly is "MCSTRM'? 3) Any place else you might think of to look for traces of RealPlayer? Thanks in advance for looking, and any help offered.