Since installing Windows XP Service Pack 3 I have been unable to use iTunes. When I attempt to start iTunes or Quicktime a message appears saying “iTunes has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for any inconvenience”. I downloaded the latest version of iTunes which installed, but the error persists. I suspect that because I am not able to run either iTunes or Quicktime that the problem is related to Quicktime.

Before we venture into more complex troubleshooting steps we will start with the basics. Start by uninstalling iTunes and Quicktime from the computer. Go to the “Start” menu > “Control Panel” and open the “Add or Remove Programs” control panel. Uninstall the two programs. Once this has completed, restart the computer. We will now need to download the latest version of iTunes and Quicktime from the Apple website at www.apple.com/itunes/download/ . Be aware, Quicktime is included in the iTunes download, so you do not need to download Quicktime separately. The latest version of iTunes at the time of writing is 8.2.1. Once downloaded, install iTunes (and Quicktime) on the computer and then check whether the problem persists with this latest version of the software.

If the problem continues, the next most likely cause of the issue is some third-party software package on the computer conflicting with iTunes and/or Quicktime. In particular, there are internet reports that if you install particular codec packs these can conflict with Quicktime. Codec packs allow you to play back certain video and audio file formats on the computer, which are not natively supported by Windows. However, some of these codec packs also include a Quicktime codec, allowing you to playback Quicktime movies though other viewers (such as Windows Media Player) without actually installing the Quicktime software. As such, when you install the official Quicktime player on the computer it can have a conflict with the third-party Quicktime codec. If you have installed any codec packs on your computer, try uninstalling the pack(s) to see whether the problem continues.

Should uninstalling the codec packs not resolve the issue, or you do not have any codec packs installed on the computer, we still need to consider whether another third-party program is conflicting with iTunes and/or Quicktime. To test this theory, disable all non-essential background programs and processes from loading on startup and then restart the computer. This should result in non-system essential programs or processes not loading when Windows starts, allowing us a clean test environment to see whether the problem continues in the absence of any background programs or processes running. Go to the “Start” menu > “msconfig” (without the quotes) and click OK. In the System Configuration Utility window that appears, click the “Startup” tab. Each ticked entry in this list indicates a process which is enabled and will load on startup. Write down the name of each process which is ticked (as we will need to re-enable them later) and then click the “Disable all” button to disable all processes from loading on startup. Click OK and then restart the computer.

When the computer restarts no non-essential background programs or processes should start. Check whether you are able to open iTunes and Quicktime. Should they successfully start, it seems that one of those programs or processes which are running in the background are causing the problem. Now it will be a process of elimination to determine which ones are causing the problem. Return to the System Configuration Utility and re-enable one of the programs or processes that you previously disabled. Click OK and restart the computer. Once the computer has restarted, check whether iTunes and Quicktime successfully start. If all is working, go back into the System Configuration Utility and enable another process, then restart and check again. Keep repeating this procedure until iTunes and Quicktime stop working. At that point, you will know that the program or process which you most recently enabled is the one causing the problem. At this point you should be able to re-enable all the other programs and processes that were previously disabled.

Once you have determined the specific program or process causing the problem you have a few options about how to proceed. First, you should determine the purpose of that program or process. Usually the name of the program or process as shown in the System Configuration Utility is not particularly descriptive. Therefore, I find it is best to type the name into Google and that should produce useful information about the purpose of the program or process. If you determine that you do not need that program or process (as it performs an unneeded function) you should be able to leave it disabled. Be aware, upon startup you may receive a message saying that you are running the computer in Selective Startup mode. This simply means that Windows is not loading all startup items, as you have selectively disabled some of the items (i.e. the item causing a conflict with iTunes and Quicktime). You can safely ignore this message and tick the box so it does not appear in the future.

On the other hand, if you determine that the process which has been disabled is required then we need to take additional remedial action. In particular, you should check whether any other people have experienced similar problems (perhaps try a Google search for “ iTunes Quicktime” to check whether that yields any results). Alternatively, please feel free to contact me again with information about this process should you need further guidance.

We should now deal with the final scenario where disabling all the processes from loading on startup does not fix the problem. This indicates that the problem is not being caused by a background process running in Windows. Before going any further, make sure that you re-enable all the programs and processes so that they load on startup. At this point it seems that there is some kind of inherent corruption or conflict within your installation of Windows which is disagreeing with iTunes and Quicktime. This will be quite difficult to diagnose, since there are many potential reasons this could be occurring, with some not being easily fixable. To discount the obvious problem of a corrupt or missing Windows system file we should try running the Windows System File Checker. This will scan the Windows installation for any corrupt or missing Windows system files and replace these with known good copies. Go to the “Start” menu > “Run” and type “sfc /scannow” (without the quotes) and click OK. The SFC utility will commence operations. Once it has finished it will exit silently with no user feedback. At this point, restart the computer and check whether the problem continues.

If the problem still continues without resolution then the only reasonable option which I can suggest is to backup all data on the computer that you wish to keep and then do a format and reinstallation of Windows. Be aware, this is a destructive process so all data on your computer hard drive will be lost. As such, it is essential that you backup any data that you wish to keep before embarking on this process.