Apple's iTunes 7.6 plays nice with 64-bit Vista

Not only is the latest version of iTunes (v7.6 for those keeping count) required to enjoy those brand new movie rentals, but users with 64-bit Windows Vista machines can now look forward to using the software without issue. According to a number of tips, owners of said setups are apparently having no issues with it as of now. So, 64-bit Vista users -- for any of you courageous enough to give it a whirl, why not install iTunes 7.6 and report back with how things worked out?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

[patches66 Posted Jan 16th 2008 5:50AM]

has anybody found a solution for the non-rentals yet? not to my knowledge, so probably a long, long time. wmv files are a different story... if that's a concern, which it shouldn't be. breaking drm is DIRTY AND BAD.

[brodiemash Posted Jan 15th 2008 4:19PM]

Still don't see rentals, either. Hmmmm....

[Robert Mechum Posted Jan 15th 2008 4:25PM]

So, we have HD content available only via Apple TV...nice...thanks a lot. :(

The new notebook is sealed like an iPod so have fun with that battery.

I was pretty happy with the keynote...you know...until we got the full details.

What a disappointment.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 15th 2008 4:31PM]

DL Link? The version im getting from apples's website is telling me to download the 64 bit installer because the 7.6 I have is designed for 32-bit windows...

Where?? download it from where?? ARRGGHHH!!

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 15th 2008 4:35PM]

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/4876/clipboard01ji9.jpg look! :(

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 15th 2008 5:13PM]

oops have to do it with ie64 my bad :p

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 16th 2008 6:33AM]

Daniel - I had same probs. Turns out you need to download iTunes with IE and not fireworks. You'll then be prompted for to download iTunes64Setup.exe

Had to uninstall the prev version of iTunes first.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 13th 2008 3:43AM]

can somebody please upload the 64-bit version installer? I have Win XP 64-bit and it links me to the 32-bit edition. I know Apple doesn't support it, but I know several people who have installed it and it works fine.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 15th 2008 4:41PM]

Vista 64 iPhone 1.1.3 all working. A great day.

[red hare Posted Jan 15th 2008 4:43PM]

Dear iTunes,

How about Linux?

[Robert Mechum Posted Jan 15th 2008 4:45PM]

Exactly...we are shunned by the Mac people. Which is why I've gone the Rockbox route.

[red hare Posted Jan 15th 2008 5:07PM]

I run rockbox on my iaudio, but I also own an ipod touch and gtkpod is problematic. Sigh.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 15th 2008 6:53PM]

I have been using iTunes for a long time on 64bit XP and Vista. I installed the Gear Software driver and i haven't had a single issue. I sync my 5.5G Ipod all the time. What other issues were reported as bugs under 64bit?
wwwgearsoftwarecom/support/drivers.cfm

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 15th 2008 5:02PM]

I can't even get it to connect to the iTunes store....interesting...

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 15th 2008 5:36PM]

It's still slower that Duke Nukem Forever Development. It's faster running on OSX inside of a virtual machine where Vista is the host system. Ditto for for linux as the host.

I don't understand how a native application can be so much slower on the host than through two layers of emulations.

[AlexL Posted Jan 16th 2008 12:00PM]

It's because all Apple software for Windows uses a lightweight user interface library drawn from OS X to paint its GUI, to emulate the OS X look. They are not fully native applications because they don't use the native Windows widgets to draw the UI.

It's ingenious really. The crappy software that Apple puts out for Windows platforms bogs down the entire system, and Apple can then blame it on Windows and use it as a reason to switch to OS X.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 15th 2008 5:41PM]

Works great, glad I can rip my CDs again with iTunes instead of WMP.

[Maverick9611 Posted Jan 15th 2008 8:24PM]

Ive been using iTunes and Vista x64 since RC1 and havent had a problem other then having to download the GEAR drive to burn cds, it imported fine. I dont have an iPhone but I use iTunes regularly and transfer music to my iPod on a weekly basis.

Ive never had any sort of issue with Vista since I got my video card driver a week or two after release. After that little problem everything has worked great.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 15th 2008 6:09PM]

Does anyone have a link to the 64-bit download? I wen to the hyperlink and downloaded. It did nothing new. i had the same error messages as I had before?

[scratchfury Posted Jan 15th 2008 6:44PM]

OMG! The Apple Software Update actually worked for iTunes! My head just exploded... and that stupid error about iTunes being broken is gone. Nice.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 15th 2008 7:19PM]

For anyone else is the license agreement in cursive italics? (XP MCE)

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 15th 2008 10:16PM]

I have installed 7.6 and it has (touch wood) solved the final two remaining KNOWN Vista x64 issues I’ve had:

- a DVD driver incompatibility issue (only a recent problem where I couldn’t rip CDs or record to DVDs using iTunes)

- incompatibility with WMP – a consistent problem from day one where WMP wouldn’t work (at all until Vista was rebooted) if iTunes had been started first.

I’ve also suspected that one or two OTHER minor problems I have with Vista 64 were caused by iTunes, but I’ve never known for sure. Anyway, I’ve been testing all of 5 minutes and I’ll really believe it if a week from now these problems are still all solved. But, I’m cautiously optimistic. This was my LAST significant outstanding Vista 64 issue.

...Dale

[MemphisNET Posted Jan 15th 2008 9:06PM]

Everything installed and runs fine. Very slick.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 16th 2008 3:09AM]

i had the download the 64-bit version for xp64 and it won't install claiming that i'm not running vista 64. i thought, well, no shit, then don't make me download the 64-bit version.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 16th 2008 5:22AM]

Yeah, I cannot install iTunes 7.6 on WinXP 64-bit. I get the same error.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 16th 2008 7:47AM]

Er sorry - I meant don't download iTunes for Vista 64 using FireFOX (not Fireworks!)

[AlexL Posted Jan 16th 2008 11:56AM]

Does it still insist on adding qttask.exe to my registry startup section upon every boot?

Does it still force iPodService to run in the background all the time, and automatically adds iTunesHelper to my startup?

[windybiscuit Posted Jan 16th 2008 12:01PM]

Finally some support for XP64? Not quite.

"This iTunes installer requires that your computer is running Windows Vista 64-bit."

It's frustrating how running x64 hardware seems to necessitate Vista in the minds of developers, like Apple. Did everyone forget about the 64-bit version of Windows XP? Does the decision to hold off on Vista for now mean 32-bit XP for x64 users?

Here's hoping this is just an 'oops' and a 7.6.1 build will get things rolling for us XP64 users.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 16th 2008 1:14PM]

I just downloaded the alleged 64-bit version and it does NOT work. It just tells you that you should download the 64-Bit version but does not provide a link to it anywhere.

[Kuyper Posted Jan 16th 2008 5:26PM]

As several others have pointed out, you MUST use Internet Exploder (latest version) if you're running Vista 64-bit. For some dumb reason, rather than putting a "click here for 64-bit" button, they guess your OS based on the browser's UserAgent or something.

It downloads and installs just fine after that.

I use IE as a /last/ resort, but I could not convince their site to render it for FireFox, so IE it was.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 17th 2008 1:10AM]

for some reason you have to use IE (I used the 64 bit version) in order to download the 64bit installer. The first time I tried with firefox beta 3.0 and it just downloaded the 32bit version - lame.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 17th 2008 2:25AM]

Whoops! Looks like the 64 bit version of Itunes (specifically the Bonjour service that installs with it) does NOT play well with 64 bit Vista (and my setup)! If anyone else can confirm, that'd be great.

Situation:

I installed Itunes this morning after reading this thread, and went off to work (without rebooting). I rebooted this evening after doing some windows updates and had no Internet connection.

After much fussing (and thinking it was the Windows Updates... even resorting to a system restore to a point before the windows updates), I spotted the LSP entry for the bounjour LSP files in the registry and remembered that I'd updated Itunes. The earlier system restore was from a point after Itunes had been installed.

I uninstalled Itunes and verified that I could get an internet connection again.

Verification:

To confirm that it was Itunes that caused the problem, I decided to recreate the situation. I did the following steps.

1. With the latest windows updates NOT installed, and Itunes 7.6 NOT installed I Rebooted.
2. I installed the latest windows updates, rebooted, confirmed positive Internet connection.
3. Rebooted again, confirmed positive Internet connection.
4. Downloaded Itunes (64 bit version from http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/ which as others have identified determines which version to download based on your browser).
5. Installed Itunes. Confirmed positive Internet connection.
6. KEY POINT. At this point I REBOOTED, and confirmed a NEGATIVE Internet connection.
7. Rebooted again to confirm, still no Internet Connection.
8. UNINSTALLED Bonjour from the add/remove control panel applet. No Internet Connection before rebooting.
9. Rebooted, confirmed Positive Internet connection (and started writing this post).


SYMPTOMS:

If you do an IPCONFIG /ALL at a command prompt with Itunes 7.6 installed, you'll see TWO default gateway entries. One being 0.0.0.0 and the other being your usual one. At this point, I believe all traffic is being routed through the wrong gateway, hence no Internet connection. As soon as you uninstall Bonjour and REBOOT, you should be back to just one gateway (the regular one).

Additional symptoms show and additional Unidentified public network in the control panel>Network and Sharing Center.

Of course the biggie is NO connection to the Internet.

I have documented each IPCONFIG /ALL > C:\ipconfig-.txt, and have a handful of pertinent screenshots.

Anyone else verify this?

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 19th 2008 7:25AM]

ITunes 7.6 crashes on Windows Vista Ultimate all the time or at least it freezes. Playing audio or video is not possible and even if you kill it after it crahed (buttons like close window do not work anymore after freeze/crash) you have to restart the computer because it is sticking in the system. (task manager)
Also it says it's a 64 bit product, task manager states it is running as 32bit. Apple is doing a joke here in my opinion..

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 21st 2008 2:58AM]

BRAVO!! BRAVO APPLE! Thanks for the most painful and time consuming day of my IT Career! After iTunes alerting me Friday night it needed to upgrade to 7.6 (no mention that those on Vista 64 should go and download from the website rather; there was no news from you even alerting users) and completing no problem. I boot my pc on Saturday morning only to be greeted with a endless cycle of BSOD because of WUDFRD.sys. Now a) I have a USB keyboard - so there was no way to boot into safe mode to actually do a system restore which not even your own website reccomends doing or even bothered to let your iTunes users be aware there could be issues. b) I spent well over 2 hours on the phone to your "customer care" phone line today attempting to get hold of someone who was as I was informed by those "individuals" at your UK call centre is a"Product Specialist" for iTunes - Only to be put BACK INTO THE QUEUE AGAIN to wait another "15 minutes due to high calls".

I have tried completely uninstalling and reinstalling the iTunes64Installer.exe as suggested by some obscure KB article I had to search for after forking out to buy a PS2 keyboard and correct YOUR BLUNDER to MY SYSTEM!

So I say again; BRAVO APPLE!!! Aren't you lucky that we who were faithful and trusting of your brand are now stuck because of the DRM on songs bought in times past...

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 17th 2008 5:39PM]

Encountered the same problem with the supposed 64-bit release of iTunes 7.6 on Vista x64 - BSOD on reboot complaining about wudfrd.sys. The 'fix' is as follows:

PART 1
======
[from some Googling; thanks "osulaxxer" on Apple forum]

1. Boot into safemode with networking

2. go to start and in the run box type cmd, right click on CMD and select run as administrator

3. in cmd prompt type this exactly- REG ADD "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Safeboot\Network\MSIServer" /VE /T REG_SZ /F /D "Service"

4. Hit Enter, then close the command prompt. You just added a registry key to add the service MSIServer (which is the windows installer service) in safe mode

5. Now that the key exists you will start the service: Go to start and in the run line type- net start MSIServer

6. The Installer service should be running, so go to control panel, programs and uninstall itunes

7. You should now be able to use Windows again

PART 2
======
[What I've discovered]

If you're brave enough then proceed, otherwise wait for Apple/Microsoft/Whoever to get provide an 'official fix'. However, this worked just fine for me.

1. Install Service Pack 1 for Vista

2. When running fine, install iTunes 7.6 x64 version (itunes64setup.exe).

3. Don't restart yet! Now download and install GEAR 64-bit drivers (http://www.gearsoftware.com/support/drivers.cfm)

4. Once done, you can now reboot, and fingers crossed it will all work fine!

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 23rd 2008 10:39AM]

One of the guys over at PlanetAMD64 has edited the Vista64 install file to get iTunes 7.6 working on XP Professional x64 Edition.
I've tried it and I can now sync my iPod Touch on XP x64.

Unfortunately, according to him, Apple are removing his posts from their forums.
Details of his fix are here: http://www.planetamd64.com/index.php?showtopic=35132&st=0

Sound like a simple fix too, which pisses me off even more that Apple didn't do it.