(Untitled)

[viridian5]

I removed the iTunes on my laptop, as iTunes suggested, and installed a new one I downloaded from online, but the new iTunes retains the registry setting problems that prevented my last iTunes from importing or burning CDs! What do I do now, because I am now afraid to try anything? System Restore might just add even more problems

Comments

[lunarennui]

start googling how to do a registry scrub for iTunes. so saith Justin, who refuses to get even more involved in this because he has to do tech support for absolutely everyone on top of doing it at work. also he is in a super-bad mood.

[viridian5]

It looks like doing that involves removing all Apple software from my system. Then I'd have to download iTunes again and try to install again? I'm too scared of screwing more up and then finding out I still have some kind of registry problem.

I Googled "how to find iTunes registry settings" and got a long page of instructions that involved messing around in the regedit section, in which if I make one wrong move I could screw things up so badly I might destroy my computer's ability to even start up. That's way too scary.

[viridian5]

OMG, I didn't remove the 5,000 hidden Apple things from my computer in the correct order before I downloaded a new iTunes and installed it. I can't go through all this again!

[chorus_of_chaos]

ahhh... why I won't touch anything apple with a 10 foot pole (besides the price of their crap) though microsoft is just as bad anymore :(

[viridian5]

I spent three and a half hours on this. The library connection is faster than dial-up but slow enough that downloading the exe file took 35 minutes. Removing (just) the iTunes program took a while, then installing the new iTunes took over ten minutes. I had to turn off and restart my laptop during it. Then I got the same damn message warning before the new iTunes started up, then I had to get used to how the new version of iTunes has moved a lot of its controls to different places for no damned reason

[chorus_of_chaos]

good god I don't blame you at all, having been in that same circumstance of problems, shipping it back, getting something entirely different and it was fuxored too. Just keep dogging them and be the uber squeaky wheel, I find that mentioning you've hit all the forums and left comments (they don't like those comments to add up) as well as that you've gotten a lot of feedback in your blogging community and facebook helps sometimes, I had a rep say one time once a problem was resolved "please update your blog that we helped resolve it!" (Okay I may have given them the impression I had a big blog following :D)
v

[ramenkuri]

Oh, that's terrible!

Before doing anything else, i suggest that you backup your registry settings:
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/windowsxp/ht/backupxpreg.htm

This way if anything else breaks, you can revert back to your present state.

If you share your registry settings backup file with me, I can search to see which keys might be best changed to fix the iTunes issue. (also, does iTunes complain about any specific registry settings? Sharing the exact error message / a screenshot would be helpful)

[viridian5]

At this point I'm way too scared to try anything, since things I've tried so far just broke other things or made them worse! Maybe I'll get up the nerve eventually. I don't know where the registry settings backup file is.

This is the not very helpful warning message iTunes puts up:

[ramenkuri]

Wow, that really is an unhelpful message.

I understand - makes sense that you don't want to try anything else. (Sorry, the registry settings backup file I was talking about is the file that would be created if you follow the steps in the link
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/windowsxp/ht/backupxpreg.htm
But leave that for if you have the nerve / energy another day)

[crescentium]

Hmm, iTunes is way out of my area of expertise because I avoid it like the plague but having said that, if you feel up to trying the uninstall + reinstall one more time, here's something that might help:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/23959/completely-remove-itunes-and-other-apple-software-from-a-windows-computer/

There are a couple of apps mentioned there. I usually use CCleaner to clean up the registry, but you probably want to try ByeTunes because it's designed to take care of this specific problem. There are download links at the very bottom of the page for each of the suggested software.

[viridian5]

I got confused by all the instructions, used ByeTunes first, and now my system won't remove any of the Apple programs! But the iTunes icon has disappeared off my Desktop.... ::shoots self::

And it won't repair or reinstall iTunes!

edit: After two hours on the phone with Apple, it's correctly uninstalled and reinstalled. Thank you, Michael at Apple.