A Windows User's iTunes Experience

[Nermal]

Here is a copy of a chat I had with a friend. He needed QuickTime, and thought Apple was forcing him to get iTunes too.

Him: im so pissed off with apple

Me: why?

Him: spend 2 hours downloading quicktime(itunes) and its ****ty as

Him: + apple spams ur email

Me: its only 20 megs, what did u download?

Me: and choose the option for "don't contact me"

Him: + it associated itself with files when i told it not to

Him: + the next time i restart it takes way longer to load windows and theres heaps hore things running... qtplayer.exe... ituneshelper.exe ipodservace.exe gearsec.exe

Me: why did you install itunes? i thought you didnt like it

Him: + it added a ipod service and gear security service

Him: u cant install quicktime with out it

Me: yeah, gear security, aka freeplay, is the copy protection used by itunes

Me: of course you can

Him: it diddnt let me

Him: u click on download quicktime and it downloads itunes

Me: "it diddnt let me" = "i can't follow instructions"

Me: www.apple.com/quicktime/download/ - see the option called "QuickTime and iTunes for Windows 2000/XP"? then look at the option above it

Him: u try it

Me: QuickTimeInstaller.exe - is that what you downloaded?

Him: duh apple is gay

So there you have it. Comments, anyone?

 

[Stike]

He didn´t sound like the smartest person on earth anyway... all those background processes are not a problem. Look at other Windows processes, and OS X processes. Who cares...?

 

[dragula53]

hah

I am macintosh zealot... but...

I just tried that too

quicktime downloads itunes.

not sure if it is that way intentionally or what

blah blah

 

[JackRipper]

Well....

When I was surfing the QuickTime Trailers on the Apple site it told me that there was an update to QuickTime and asked if I wanted to install it. Since I'm on a T1 I thought why not?

Sure enough it sent me the iTunes and QuickTime combo. I hadn't installed iTunes on this PC since I don't have many mp3's ( work PC, of course ).

The guys is wrong about it forcing you to change file type owners, though.... Most people that install windows programs just 'Next through' the whole thing, ignoring options. It asked me...

That guy is gay.

 

[FightTheFuture]

Re: Well....

Originally posted by JackRipper
Most people that install windows programs just 'Next through' the whole thing, ignoring options.

windows media player, during setup, asks which formats to affiliate itself with. its buried under many other options that users may want to just 'next through'. whereas itunes during setup, has one screen that asks which formats to accept. its not a confusing option.

but it is a bit intrusive for apple to simply pack both into one download. everyone should be concerned of where they put their email address, and what they select for download options when they choose to download anything. especially with all the spam problems. but i don't know how much easier it can get from just picking which one you want:

 

[e-coli]

QuickTime for the PC is a piece of crap. And it does screw up your file associations. It's really annoying.

In part, I know what he's talking about.

 

[MorganX]

Originally posted by e-coli
QuickTime for the PC is a piece of crap. And it does screw up your file associations. It's really annoying.

In part, I know what he's talking about.

It does what every other PC media player does. It associates files it can playback with itself. And like all you have the option not to make these associations.

And better than most PC programs, during the setup of Quicktime, it stops, and asks you if you want to accept the associations or change them. In fact, it categorizes them by type if you choose to change them making it very easy to only associate Quicktime and Mac file types and leave the others untouched.

PC apps should handle this as gracefully.

 

[ebow]

Originally posted by e-coli
QuickTime for the PC is a piece of crap. And it does screw up your file associations. It's really annoying.

In part, I know what he's talking about.

I've read over and over that QuickTime for Windows is junk, crappy, terrible, etc... Is all people are talking about the file association thing? I don't get it: they have one of the most detailed yet easy to use File Type Association pickers that I've seen for a media player. It's available both thru the QuickTime player's Edit menu, and the QuickTime control panel.

Are people upset about the nag screen asking you to buy QuickTime Pro? We have to cope with that on the Mac, and people aren't calling the entire app junk because of it. On either platform, just set your clock ahead about 20 years, open QuickTime, quit QT, and set your clock back. It will never bother you again.

Are people upset about the quality of playback? I've played .mov and .mpg files thru QuickTime for Windows and never had significant cause to complain. Then again, I do most of that stuff on my Mac, most of the time, but still, I've been using QT/Windows for a long time as well...

Anyway, your friend sounds pretty dense... as in stubborn, like the way my brother (Wintel fan) is stubborn in not even trying to think things thru when he expects Apple software to be problematic. Except for Apple's dumb move of defaulting to an iTunes/QT combo download, PEBKAC, I'd say.

 

[Chealion]

Hmm... RTFM? Or rather Read the Page and the instructions, and if you didn't, don't complain.

Its like not voting and then complaining about the government. If you didn't choose who, you shouldn't have the right to criticize.