*.asf, *.asx, Internet media & Media Player, etc...

So, Here's my problem...
I'm one of those computer users who thinks he knows a bit about computers
and accidentally clicks the wrong system file and messes up the whole sh'bang.

About a month ago Windows Media Player worked perfectly well. I was able to
play music and view videos in a normal way, like you should be able to on a
media player (meaning a player of media, not a player of nothing). Then, for
mystical and unknown reasons, I'm not able to view videos and music is
consistently skipping throughout the entirety of the song, not just at the
end. The skipping has nothing to do with the quality of the recording as
this was never a problem before and these songs have played fine in the past
and still play fine on my PDA.

The video may have something to do with me wanting to play the OLD version
of Wolfenstein 3D and finding a version that's "compatible with Vista" and
trying to load it. I can't recall where the download was from, but I can
almost bet it's from there. I recall a bunch of dos-prompt commands flying
by at breakneck speed, and DirectX included in that, but not much more.

And, along with my problems, on my wife's Login, she's not able to see ANY
video, and many web sites are unable to load.

I've researched Downloading Codecs, but it seems that the MSWMP9 Audio or
Video Codecs don't have a download past Win2k or ME. I don't know if I
should download one anyway and which one.
I've also looked into restoring WMP to original settings and files. Ifigure
then it would be able to automatically download all updates and be back to
normal.
I don't know what gives as far as websites are concerned. I've got SWFlash
and all that. but it still won't play. Is it possible to download the most
current version of Internet Explorer (which I'm the most comfortable with)?

I've given a lot of information, but I don't want a reply like, "what
exactly is your problem"...
Can someone help me out?
Thanks.

--
-DK