iTunes not playing well with Vista

The latest version of iTunes has been causing problems for many Windows users, prompting a Blue Screen of Death whenever an iPod of iPhone is connected.

“I just installed iTunes 8 over my iTunes 7 on Vista. Now whenever I plug in my iPod nano, I get a blue screen death. Three times so far. Even if it is plugged in on boot, I get a blue screen,” wrote user sambeckett on the Apple support forums, less than two hours after the public release of the software.

Since that time the thread has attracted over 300 more posts, and has been viewed more than 14,000 times, suggesting that the problem is rather widespread.

Some affected users have received an error message that seems to pin the problem on a USB driver provided by Apple as part of the latest iTunes update. The company has admitted the problem, and today posted an innovative fix for the solution – uninstall iTunes, re-download the package and reinstall it.

The simple measure may fix the problem, but has left many users wondering how a problem like this can slip through Apple’s testing procedures.

“This is the consequence of being so secretive. You don’t get enough beta testers who can see how the program interacts with other programs or hardware, although given how severe and complete the bug is – and given how iTunes is an integral and necessary part of the iPhone ecosystem – it really blows my mind,” says user Peter Lee, writing on the Apple forum.

This is not the first time that Apple has encountered problems with iTunes for Windows. In late 2006 many users found that iTunes 7 produced distortion when playing back audio and froze when attempting to eradicate the silent gaps between songs. In March 2007 further problems with Vista compatibility were found, prompting an update with several fixes.

Even the first release of iTunes for Windows, in 2003, was met with mixed reactions and some users reporting problems under Windows 2000.

Apple was unavailable for comment at the time of writing.