iTunes 9 continues to suck on Windows, makes halfhearted attempt at Windows 7 integration

Ugh, iTunes has sucked and continues to suck on all Windows OS'. It's simply not a good program. I'd drop all the bullshit 'Genius' features if Apple will make a native iTunes, like they did for Safari.

I'm *praying* that they do ti for version 10, but Apple frankly doesn't give a shit.

Wow, iTunes 9 makes a halfhearted attempt at Windows 7 integration, before Windows 7 is released? STOP THE PRESSES.

It's a real shame that Apple couldn't program for Windows like they do for OS X. iTunes on OS X is absolutely wonderful. It's not slow, it never freezes, it doesn't crash. If Apple would recode it from the ground up for Windows (won't happen), it could be the definitive music player for Windows (if you can deal without the customization abilities of Foobar, that is). That said, I couldn't imagine using it full time if I were a Windows user.

Of course, the same can be said about Microsoft. Office on Mac is absolute crap and you're better off using two cans and some string over Messenger.

iTunes on Windows is worse than an Adobe Air app! Nasty stuff.

I don't understand why you are talking about Windows 7 like its some beta OS. Its finished and its been finished for a few months. I would be disappointed if Apple didn't put at least some effort into adding Window 7 features into iTunes. Now the lack of effort into those features are pretty much expected too. The fact that Windows 7 isn't for sale yet has nothing to do with whether Apple should be adding features to iTunes for it. All developers should update their products for new OSs before the OS is released.

As for iTunes 9, I was quite surprised actually. It is the fastest ive seen itunes yet. The store is pretty fast and my biggest gripe about itunes before now was that it took forever to go from inactive to active when you click off itunes and back again it was slower than malasses.. But, that to is acceptable now. Its finally not a chore to use anymore. And I dont have a highend pc either.. Its a 5 year old Celeron with 2GB on Vista SP2. While I have Windows 7 RTM on my laptop I haven't yet installed itunes 9 on it yet. Hopefully my experiences with version 9 on vista will be recipricated on Win 7 as well..

Itunes not properly integrated into Windows 7!?

Isn't that a good thing? considering its not properly done on existing Windows platform. I mean other than uploading music to your device, I can't imagine anyone actually using for, gasp, playing music...

Whith so many choices and much better players out there for Windows who would even care about Itunes. IE: Winamp, Songbird, Musicmonkey and hey even WMP has made some significant advances in Win7.

I have Itunes installed on a old pc, so I can avoid having multiple processes installed and peace of mind I don't have Apple messing around with my system.

Where all getting Zune HD's anyway right? :-P

I'm an iTunes fan and that looks pretty poor.

Mind you, Windows 7 isn't officially out yet, so hopefully Apple will make it a bit better before Windows 7 is released...

Actually, the whole 'Windows 7 isn't even released yet' is a bogus and invalid argument. RC1 has been available to the general public for months now. Developers and MSDN/TECHNET subscribers have had access for much longer. Apple has had access at least as long as I have. There is no excuse for them not to try a bit more. They could, at the very least, make it work better under Vista. iTunes is a pig and the latest release is no different. It is ugly and about as graceful as a bull in a china shop. Windows users are Apple's biggest customers, they should make their software work better. I don't give a rats butt Mac OS X. There are way iTunes users on Windows than Mac OS X and that should be the priority for iTunes devlopment, not the other way around. For a company that is supposed to be so concerned about the 'user experience', they sure do ignore the largest group of users they have.

itunes like a shiny car with nice view but doesnt have engine for pc only mac verison have this .. stupid apple.i don't wanna buy a mac for entire my life
price is so high.. come on.. ipod.. iphone or mac.. stupid prices out there and every stupid gonna buyin them..

I thought this was an excellent article - not specifically because it highlights the Windows 7 jumplist issue, but it demonstrates a general callousness in Apple development when it comes to features that do not directly benefit their bottom line.

Another great example is the half-hearted automatic folder watching feature - it only works if you manually move all your music not purchased from iTunes into one particular pre-defined folder buried deep in your iTunes library.

I feel iTunes development seems to have stagnated somewhere around iTunes 5 in the same way Microsoft Windows Media Player and other media products seem to be advancing in version #s yet don't seem to bring many game-changing features to the table any longer.

I agree, yes, jumplists for a competitor's OS and watch folders don't push more iTunes store purchases. It may even make good business sense to do this w.r.t. resource allocation, but it often feels like too much mercenariness rather than genuine dedication is being put into the product.

That's still more integration than I've seen in 99% of applications. The taskbar preview is the same as the one for Windows Media Player.

The only reason this POS is installed on my PC is because I have an iPhone and don't have a choice.

We need a piece of software that can 1) move audio & video to (and from) the phone, 2) back the phone up completely, and 3) perform system updates, 4) never ever destructively sync anything, 5) run without a laborious install.

I'd pay $100 for that right now if it worked well.

Yet another reason to continue running iTunes-free. Once I found an alternate way to get music on my old iPod I uninstalled iTunes have haven't looked back since. Of course, I haven't even turned on my iPod in a year or so.

I agree with quanta. The point of the post does not seem to be that Apple isn't fully supporting an "unreleased" OS (an argument already debunked by others), but rather Apple's general "screw you" attitude towards its supposedly loyal and definitely paying customers.

I wish there was a functional alternative to iTunes. doubleTwist was great for just putting music on until it ceased to work with 3.0. I don't even care about Windows 7 integration, though it's what I use at both work and home. I wish more basic things were handled... like when you remove Bonjour, and it pops up it's warning message about it *behind* all other open apps with no taskbar button for the dialog, so you don't even know it's back there. Or how the GEAR ASPI filter driver it installs breaks so many systems rendering their optical drives non-functional. Or how there's no Stop button, Pause does not replace Stop. Or the options for inserting a CD... how about an option to DO NOTHING when you insert a CD. Or if using an USB extension cable and charging your ipod, if iTunesHelper detects an iPod but can't connect to it to check the setting for whether it should run iTunes or not... it runs iTunes anyway... and once it runs, it tells you it can't connect to it... well duh, if it couldn't connect to it to check the setting that says NOT to run iTunes when it's plugged in, why would I want it to run anyway to tell me it can't connect?! How about settings to Ignore the warnings about Bonjour/GEAR... iTunes and the iPod work fine without them... how come I can't say I know they aren't there, and to quit looking for them and telling me EVERY SINGLE TIME. Or installing apps... why can't I drag and drop individual apps from the Library to my iPod?! Why do I HAVE to sync all apps to get a single app on there?! Or how about if you have download window open, how it sucks down almost 50% of a 2.2GHz CPU while the download window is open, and then fine once you change to a view that doesn't show the progress bar?! That's horrible.

So yeah, I'd rather they fix the numerous other horrible usability issues before they worry about 7 integration.

http://www.mgtek.com/dopisp/ allows you to use WMP for syncing iPods and Iphones/Touches prior to OS 3, which broke its support, although that's coming back. It allows you to sync music OFF of your iPod, which would be in and of itself enough to justify its existence. If you have Windows and an iPod, it's worth a try!

apparently you all are luck or I am not! I installed itunes 9 and it won't even open now. After clicking on itunes I simply get the.... itunes has encountered a problem and needs to close. I have uninstalled and reinstalled with no improvement. And I am running windows xp

I installed itunes 9 on my laptop running windows 7 - trend micro gave me a low risk warning - Details: Display Name GEAR ASPI Filter Driver
Program:c:\Windows\system32\DRIVERS\GEARAspiWDM.sys

should I allow this or not?

Thank you.