I upgraded to WMP11 - I prefer the look of it and all the features seem much the same. I've not tried ripping CDs yet though. The only thing that is bugging me is I can't find out how to put the menu bar at the top (file, edit etc).
VLC is my favourite media player though - I've yet to find anything that it can't play. I like the snapshot feature too - you can pause a video and take a screenshot.