Widows Media Player doesn't have a "tools" section where I can re-specify I want it as the default player for online streaming, and the VLC player doesn't have a place to do this, not that I can see. If I uninstall VLC maybe the Windows comes back to life? It's something in the VLC player that reset all my defaults, but I can find anything in either player's "help" sections that DO what I need, they just tell me how wonderful they are.
UPDATE: apparently this VLC update is munching defaults left and right, it's a Firefox freebie and I guess they didn't Beta-test it. I just did a system restore to regain my sugar and I'll approach VLC with much greater caution.