Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit.
Following an article in Web User magazine I went to - bit.ly/getiplayer328 -, chose the latest release, downloaded the compressed file, and then extracted everything into a specific, empty folder, created especially for the process - I know my way around. There was no installation file anywhere in the subsequent arrangement - not a single .exe or .msi to be seen. So that didn't work - shame on Web User, and others involved. I then searched for help with installation and found a link to a different address to a Windows installation routine. I went there, downloaded it, installed it, went to it in Start/All Programs, clicked it, and ended in a DOS box with a flashing cursor. This happened for every selection from Start/All Programs - I was just left in DOS, just in DOS, twiddling my thumbs waiting for something to happen. Nothing did. Came here.
After some finger drumming wondered if I needed iPlayer installed. My heart sank. "NO", I cried. See...
BBC iPlayer Desktop is without doubt the most problematic program I've ever suffered. I know you're thinking that everybody says that about any program they have had even the slightest problem with. No. It really has been seriously, frustratingly, consistently bad.
The first time I installed it it worked for two days then all the recorded programs disappeared and it refused to do anything at all. Since then I have tried to install it on many occasions - always problems. No matter what I do - failure. I last installed it some months ago after reading in a FAQ that it can only be installed with Administrator privileges. WHAT?! I've been required to gain such privileges in order to, say, delete a file or edit the Registry, but never has such been required by any other program I have installed - ever, in, what, thirty years of messing with computers! What is so special about Desktop that it requires Administrator privileges to simply install? Anyway, I installed it and downloaded some programmes. Shortly after, I clicked the download symbol next to a TV programme, and after a long while, I was - get this, you really won't believe it, but it's true, honest - invited to Install the Desktop Player... over and over again. Absolutely true, I swear. While this stupidity was happening I could see the iPlayer Desktop icon sitting in the Taskbar, and I could even open it to view my downloads. It loaded on Startup. It was installed. It had download entries. But it couldn't even recognise its own installation. It's a programming joke. Laughable. And so, sadly, back to failure again.
I decided to forget it, wipe it from my mind, devalue it, unacknowledge its existence, and I have until now, after reading about GetiPlayer. I did hope. I really did. But, no. Left in DOS for Christ's sake. I only want to record Radio 4 and Radio 4 Extra programs that I will miss throughout the day.
I once visited an entertaining site that listed expansions of Murphy's Law - "If anything can go wrong, it will go wrong." - the site offered another Law - "It won't work." Such is my experience of both BBC iPlayer Desktop, and, now, GetiPlayer. Neither do.
So, then, does BBC iPlayer Desktop need to be installed for GetiPlayer to work? If so, I'm doomed, but this requirement should be shouted. If not, then why am I left in DOS? I see the screenshots in Web User that show it as a working Windows program, but I am just abandoned in DOS. I'm not sure that I care anymore - such consistent failure is draining of life - but answer if you can be bothered, I may read your responses, or I may just lie on my couch and sigh into the breeze of despair.
Yours faithfully, best wishes, Me.

Don't castigate Web User or anyone else. They page they linked to contains links to both the Windows installer and the documentation wiki, which includes installation instructions. You would have saved yourself some time by reading more carefully. As for being "left in DOS", you were left right where you were supposed to be. get_iplayer is a command-line application, which is why the start menu shortcut places you at a command prompt. The pictures in Web User were presumably of the Web PVR Manager, which is a browser-based interface to get_iplayer, not a Windows application. If their article didn't say as much, maybe they are due a bit of castigation.

You need to start over again with this:

https://squarepenguin.co.uk/wiki/installation/winsetup/

Next, read the Wiki and Guides sections of this site.

Hi Dinky - this is good, using the Web PVR Manager (WPM) is SO much easier than the command line. I know I would have found life a lot easier if this had perhaps been stressed a bit more at the outset. Just a suggestion.
And a couple of small things that confused me:
1. WPM may not be pinned to Start, so users could be told to search for it & then pin to Start
2. WPM launched my default browser to http://localhost.com:1935/ (if memory serves), it took me a while to spot that and replace with http://localhost:1935/ - then it works a treat!

It's up to users whether or not they want to pin menu items to Start. It's not for me to tell them how to set up their Start menus.

WPM does not launch browsers to localhost.com. If you're getting .com appended, that's your browser, or an add-on or something else messing with the URL.