PC Hatred

Last month, I received a snazzy new Dell laptop from my employer (everything I do at home happens on my iBook). For the most part, the new machine has been impressive, though Windows has already "automatically updated" and erased all my unsaved work once.

Last week, however, I was sorely disappointed when a laughable hardware-software incompatibility issue arose. On an overnight flight from the west coast, I decided to watch David Lynch's Inland Empire. In went the DVD. Out came the Windows Chime of Failure. Accompanying it was a popup window that said: "no dvd decompressor installed."

Only a PC would have a DVD drive but no DVD player. I searched through all the nested Program listings in the Start Menu, but there was nothing other than Windows Media Player, which didn't work. Since there's no internet at 30,000 feet, I couldn't bother googling for a free player.

Can anyone recommend one?