Ugh! Apple, stop messing with my machine!

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Ugh! Apple, stop messing with my machine!

I have an IPod, and I quite like the miserable thing. However, ITunes is a pain in the kiester.

Whenever there's an update, I can't get the itunes update without the STUPID QUICK TIME PLAYER being installed. If they just installed the thing, it'd be fine, but they insist on believing that everyone in the world spends ALL of their time in "quick time player." In fact, it's so important, that they put a stupid icon on my desktop, which I can't prevent, and put a stupid icon in my quick launch toolbar! It's so annoying that I regularly don't update ITunes just because of quicktime! I've even contemplated not using my IPod any more.

I'm sure that's the effect Apple wants.

When was the last time that you actually opened a media player? 90% of the time I'm opening a file and the media player is just a side effect! Its certainly not as important as Outlook, which I use all of the time, or IE, which I also use all of the time. I can't even remember the last time that I used Quicktime.

I find it ironic that it's usually MS that gets the bad rap for this type of behavior. Isn't Apple supposed to be the king of usability??

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Print | posted on Friday, February 29, 2008 3:25 PM |

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# re: Ugh! Apple, stop messing with my machine!

You need a procedure, like I use, to deal with the apple stuff.

For example, when installing the iTunes 7.6.0(29), the following "Post-Install" steps are used:

- Uninstall Apple Software update
- Uninstall Bonjoir
- Rename "disnoted.exe" to "disnoted.exe.norun"
- Remove QTTask from the all users Run registry key

Your steps may be different, depending on such things as if you have Apple TV, etc.

The result here is FOUR! less processes running all the time, and no stealth updates.

Previous versions of iTunes had similar, but different, post-installation steps. If you elect NOT to install Apple Software Update at install time, it will install anyway! King of usability? Ha! King of Arogance.

2/29/2008 4:29 PM | joe

# re: Ugh! Apple, stop messing with my machine!

cool. thank you, Joe.

3/3/2008 5:26 AM | A.J.

# re: Ugh! Apple, stop messing with my machine!

Ugh... iTunes uses quicktime as it's base dear. Without quicktime, iTunes would have no sound or video codecs. AKA, no iTunes. It's possible to package iTunes stand-a-lone, but that doesn't make sense from an economic stand point.

By the way, Real, Sun/Java, Logitech and HP all install update programs and run them in the background. Apple's not the only one.

5/14/2008 6:34 PM | Howie

# re: Ugh! Apple, stop messing with my machine!

I found it easier to delete qttask.exe from the quicktime folder within program files (doesn't show any "cannot find file" message on startup - so believe this to be an easy solution)

Dan

7/27/2008 11:35 AM | Dan

# re: Ugh! Apple, stop messing with my machine!

All sofware developers are under the illusion that auto updates of thier product are necessary or even desired by the users. In fact they all add up to a sluggish running computer resulting in users manually ripping these features, and un wanted icons off thier systems.
Bottom line, its spyware and the vendors are stealing your resources and bandwidth!

11/20/2008 5:59 PM | kadaro

# re: Ugh! Apple, stop messing with my machine!

Doesn't make sense from an economic standpoint?
THEY'RE FREE
How can it not make sense to bundle it?

1/25/2009 9:10 PM | JRU

# re: Ugh! Apple, stop messing with my machine!

Economic analysis is all about cost-benefit analysis...just because it's free doesn't mean it doesn't cost you something...like lost efficiency.

2/9/2009 8:08 PM | RobbieC

# re: Ugh! Apple, stop messing with my machine!

Just so you know, security and other critical patch updates are necessary and should occur frequently if not automatic for desktops.

Of course the problem with Apple is the obsession with bloatware. The problem with this practice is that it encourages owners to skip updates especially if this is a frequent pain for you. I'm sorry, I don't need QT or iTunes running when I'm not using them. True this is a far reaching problem. Thanks Real, Sun/Java, Logitech and HP! *not*

Oddly enough, I don't this problem on my Mac, just PCs. Perhaps you need another OS...such as Linux... You can also send a complaint to software companies as well. No most won't answer you, but with enough complaints, it might steer the practice.

2/10/2009 4:49 PM | goro

# re: Ugh! Apple, stop messing with my machine!

If you uninstall/remove bonjour, I don't believe you can use your iPhone, right? Not sure about the other programs.

10/16/2009 7:51 PM | podant

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