Filed under: iTS, OS, iTunes, Apple
Vista and iTunes Don't Play Nice Together
With all the hoopla (or lack of hoopla) surrounding the Vista release to the general public, a problem has apparently come to light with iTunes compatibility. Various folks are reporting that you cannot authorize iTunes (for WIndows) on Vista to play things purchased from the iTunes Store. We actually mentioned before Apple's customer support is confirming that iTunes is not officially compatible and they are apparently saying that a Vista compatible version of iTunes is coming "soon." Of course, when I hear things like this my first inclination is to say "get a Mac!", but at the same time it seems like Apple has had plenty of time to get a Vista compatible version of iTunes out (Vista was released to corporate customers back in November). So while it probably won't affect that many TUAW readers (except maybe in Parallels), this is yet another reason to hold off a Vista "upgrade."[Update: there's a thread on Apple's Discussions that suggests a work-around]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
elindiano said 3:00PM on 2-01-2007
LOL!!!!
thats awesome! APPLE could potentially hurt vista sales due to their dominance in online music.
plus i dont see any legal reason why they would have to support vista anyway
another reason to get a mac
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Joel Johnson said 3:07PM on 2-01-2007
Strange, this isn't new. Beta 1, Beta 2, and RC of Vista all required that the install be run as administrator for iTunes and Quicktime.
I had a time trying to install iTunes during beta one. Turns out there were two possible solutions. 1) Run as administrator or 2) name the install to "Setup.exe" Vista assumes that all executables name "Setup.exe" require administrative privs.
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mike said 4:02PM on 2-01-2007
been using Vista for quite some time now, my problem hasn't been inability to authorize (although i've been running the RTM download from MSDN, not the retail box, but they should be identical).
my problem is the OS trying to unmount my ipod repeatedly while it's trying to sync. the only solution i've found so far is to enable disk mode.
it just seems funny that Vista is trying to shoo away the ipod... "go away! go away!" heh. maybe i should name my iPod "zune" for better results!
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Bob S. said 4:13PM on 2-01-2007
And if someone "got a Mac," iTunes for Windows would still break, whether via Boot Camp or Parallels.
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Rubbinz said 4:39PM on 2-01-2007
I've been using Vista on my iMac since last Friday and iTunes installed, and authorized with no problems at all. The iPod also syncs and all that Jazz just fine as well.
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Donald Burr said 4:40PM on 2-01-2007
Why would you want to use iTunes for Windows on a Mac, when the Mac comes with iTunes itself?
And yes, you can reformat your "Windows" iPod using the Mac's iPod firmware application, in effect turning it into a Mac iPod.
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Reg Muffet said 6:11PM on 2-01-2007
I'd place the blame at Microsoft's door. They bent over backwards to ensure compatibility with big name apps such as Adobe's, even writing many "compatibility shims"*1 to ensure a reasonably smooth experience.
The main issues I've had with Vista have been smaller software releases, ones where you can email the author(s) directly (which I've done as part of my patient waiting to get a decent Vista experience for all my programs) to alert them of needed patches. They were too small to be on Microsoft's radar.
The fact that Microsoft didn't QA iTunes suggests a lot about their marketing tactics.
*1 "Compatibility shims" are little pieces of code which detect when a program expects functionality of a previous OS instead of the later one, and route the expected API call appropriately.
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i dont know the time said 8:09PM on 2-01-2007
elindiano, I only see it working the other way around. People finding an alternative to the itunes music store once they've upgraded to vista.
'The "wow" starts now' seriously, what? ;-)
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Bryan said 8:50PM on 2-01-2007
Umm...im using Vista Business and iTunes works just fine for me. Just as if i was in XP. It purchases and downloads music just fine and there is no problem with previously purchased music. The iPod interaction works just as it did in XP as well. I dont understand how people are having issues...Unless they have some weird setting on that i dont...Odd
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Andy said 9:56PM on 2-01-2007
#9 Vista has been in public beta for months and Apple had plenty of time to fix issues... take your tin foil hat off.
As for the Adobe shims, where is the publicly documented? It's certainly not the story Adobe is telling: http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/vista_support.html
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patrickD said 8:52AM on 2-02-2007
APPLE and iTunes with MICROSOFT VISTA
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305042
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Steve M said 11:44AM on 2-02-2007
As a software engineer, I can attest to the fact that moving applications to Vista is a pain in the arse. The security framework of Vista, while a step in the right direction, has vastly changed how applications install and run.
That and the fact that Microsoft was making so many changes right up to the last minute made us decide to hold off on upgrading our software for Vista. It seems that not many of our customers have upgraded yet anyway, so I think we have time :)
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Doug said 3:52PM on 2-02-2007
It looks like Apple trying to leverage a monopoly on online music to the advantage of their computer business to me. And is it also a coincidence that despite Vista being available in beta when Filemaker 8.5 was released, its about the only business application that won't run on Vista?
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rdas7 said 4:43PM on 2-04-2007
You know they did this on purpose.
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bgx2 said 9:35PM on 3-12-2007
And now for some monumental irony. I had been looking at new computers for awhile, but the catalyst in purchasing one now, was so I could finally load music on my ipod. (I had been running Windows 98 - and my computer didn't meet the minimum requirements.) My new computer has Vista. Sheesh, what a nightmare! And rotten tech support from Best Buy, where I purchased it. However, itunes has run with only a couple of small glitches - and their tech support is incredible. If only I'd have gotten a Mac.
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pfarn said 11:51AM on 3-28-2007
I installed itunes no probs, with vista premium. It runs just as it should.
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