iTunes for windows has never been a stunning success. It's slow, resource-intensive, and often erratic. But I've learned to live with this, because I love my iPod dearly.
Recently I got worried when iTunes complained that "The software required for communicating with the iPod is not installed correctly. Please reinstall iTunes to reinstall iPod's software."
Thankfully, a reinstall did fix the problem. But the error happened a few more times, and I realised that it happened every single time I restarted my computer. I usually hibernate instead of restarting, but I was dumbfounded as to why a restart would cause iTunes to stop working with my iPod (it still played music fine...)
Well, after some reasearch I know exactly why it was complaining. The iTunes installation, much to my disgust, insists on installing Quicktime without even asking you. I don't have a problem with quicktime itself, but I do have a problem with "qttask.exe", the useless program that runs at startup and sits in the system tray just in case you need it. Thankfully, I know how to turn this annoying behavior off (using msconfig).
It turns out that disabling qttask at startup was the reason for iTunes' complaints. Despite the fact that these programs are entirely different entities (or at least they should be), iTunes claims that removing this from the startup options prevents it from talking to my iPod. However, iTunes can talk to my iPod just fine if I kill the qttask manually before i connect the iPod.
My conclusion? iTunes scans the registry to make sure "qttask.exe" is set to run at startup and requires a reinstall if it has been removed, even though the program is irrelevant and unnecessary for the operation of iTunes. The only other software I know of which employs these tactics has a name. It's called "Spyware".
5 Comments:
Well, that's bloody annoying I'd say. I found out that ITunes is on my computer also. Yes, in the processes there is the .exe running away. Very annoying program when it doesn't transparently tell you what it's doing. I don't like that.
Yes, spyware does the same thing. Sad :(
Yeah this isn't really spyware. It's a more annoying class of software, let's call it for the sake of calling things things... "useware" ... a subset of the generic "crudware" that encompasses spyware, adware, useware, and software that doesn't install.
Anyway, useware being defined as software that is like spyware, but also has a useful purpose (hence the name), that you want to use it for, hence it being more annoying than spyware, because although you can get rid of it, you don't really want to.
QTTask.exe is actually part of QuickTime, not iTunes. It's the process for the system tray icon. Killing it should have no effect on iTunes. Of course, iTunes requires and installs QuickTime to operate; so, that's probably why you never noticed this until you got iTunes.
I'm not a Windows user primarily and can't check this right now, but I am quite certain that you can disable this process by unchecking the option for the system tray icon in QuickTime's preferences.
That said, there is a different background process called iTunesHelper.exe that is used by iTunes for connecting to and communicating with your iPod.
Neither of these should be considered "spyware" of any sort. They do not collect any information nor do they transmit any information to Apple or anyone else.
You can find details on these processes
here and here.
EMS - I know it's not actually spyware, but I would actually like to get rid of it (for the sake of purity - I don't need or want it so why have it always running?)
Brad - You can appear to disable the system tray icon from the program settings, but the "qttask.exe" still runs at startup. That is the point that I object to, that you are forced to run an unrelated program you don't want at startup.
And yes, I know they're not actually spying on me. But they are using similar tactics to keep qttask in my system when it is not wanted. That is what I object to.
Tim - Yah, I know. My post was saying "It's not actually spyware, its WORSE." In the same way one jokes about "You didn't do good. YOU DID GREAT!" u know that kind of joke thing.
Brad - Yeh, we know iTunes and qtTask are separate. What he's saying is iTunes is forcing you to have qtTask loaded, EVEN THOUGH they have nothing to do with each other, and it isnt used by iTunes.
Wow... thats getting towards those highly annoying spyware programs that come in twins and load each other back up!