when getting server based emails, wmv files will not play, I get a pop up that says I need adobe plug ins...why doesnt mageia handle wmv's?

First off, welcome to the community!

Most Linux distributions don't handle Windows Media format files out of the box because it's a proprietary format, and you have to own a license for those codecs to be allowed to play them. If you run Windows it's not a problem because you paid for the operating system, and therefore the rights to view those files.

There are codecs out there to play WMV files. The easiest way would be to install VLC and use that to view them. There are also gstreamer-plugins-ugly and gstreamer-plugins-bad that support non-free codecs like WMV.

Here's some information I found on the Mageia website regarding multimedia patents.
Linkage

what is vlc? where do I get it and how do i use it?

VLC just released a major new version, so there's not a lot of details out on their page yet, but VLC, in short, is a media player that pretty much supports "everything" out-of-the-box. I use it as a backup media player if Totem doesn't work with something. Their website is http://www.videolan.org . I'm installing Mageia in a virtual machine to check it out, give me an hour or so and I'll re-post with how to enable multimedia codecs and install VLC.

Just go to "Install and Remove Software" in your system's menu, and type "VLC" in the search box, press enter, then click the checkbox next to the latest version and click "Apply". Here's a screenshot.

Screenshot

thx, the machine is off site, so ill try it as soon as I am in front of it, thank you for your kind response, and having a good attitude toward helping a newbie, it is appreciated much. ill keep you posted.