A myriad of issues.

Question

_*Below is a list of a myriad of issues I have with iTunes 8 and have had with iTunes 7.*_
Whilst installing iTunes 8 it felt the need to kill explorer.exe, rendering my desktop unusable for ten minutes whilst it installed. Before it killed explorer it killed Windows Live Messenger for no apparent reason.
iTunes sometimes locks up completely when it is doing anything 'time consuming' (such as Genius scanning the library, downloading album artwork or searching for gapless albums). It also locks the entire computer rendering it unusable for sustained periods of time.
Resizing iTunes is a ghastly process, with the application rendering at 2-3 FPS.
iTunes uses a massive amount of CPU time for mundane tasks, consistently using over 50% whilst resizing (bearing in mind this is on a dual-core system, thus iTunes is using an entire core).
iTunes Toolbar on Windows Vista x64 is completely broken. None of the toolbar UI works and seems to be independent of iTunes itself.
Scrolling works 10% of the time using a mouse wheel. When it does work it goes nuts and scrolls all the way up, or all the way down.
Updating, restoring and synchronising an iPod Touch takes at least an hour and a half, with only 10gb of data to transfer.
Application updates do not install properly from iTunes and yet still log themselves as installed. After supposedly downloading and installing six updates, with iTunes saying no more updates, whilst connected and fully synchronised, my iPod Touch complained of all six updates needing to be downloaded.
iTunes UI regularly 'cuts to black' with a minimize/restore and a subsequent resize being the only thing that will get the UI to redraw.
A considerable amount of my album artwork has disappeared after upgrading to iTunes 8. I used to have at least 200/353 albums sorted, and now I have 72/353. How on Earth did iTunes manage to lose all of that artwork? I spent considerable time and effort sorting through all my artwork; it is indescribably frustrating to have to sort through it again.
My iPod Touch is regularly corrupted after synchronising with iTunes. That combined with the previously explained hour-and-a-half restore time makes for a very angry user.
The iTunes pause button frustratingly changes to a stop button if I do not have iTunes focused and I am looking at the original playlist.
Shutting down my computer without explicitly closing iTunes first consistently corrupts my library. I have to be super sure that iTunes isn’t running before I hit a ‘restart’ or a ‘shutdown’.
Exporting my iTunes library exports around 80% of my music. The last 20% seems to be left out at random (confirmed by several corruptions, followed by importing the music again. Different songs were missing every time). I would add them back manually but I have a very large amount of rated music.
Whilst updating my iPod Touch, iTunes forces a progress bar on top of itself. This renders iTunes unusable for half an hour whilst restoring and another half an hour whilst updating. With music playing loud this is very, very annoying. I daren’t force iTunes to close for fear that it might explode and take my library with it, as is usually the case. I end up just unplugging the sound for an hour.
Genius claims that you can continue working whilst it cycles through your library. This is only a half-truth. You can use iTunes if you are willing to wait around ten seconds for every click to register, then another second for iTunes to redraw.
*This is not a rant. This is a constructive list of problems FAO the iTunes Development Team. Many of these issues have been around since the release of iTunes 7.*
*These issues shouldn’t have made it to yet another release. In particular, a BSOD should definitely not have made it to release. I don’t mind paying a large amount for a sleek product (like an iPod Touch, for example), but I am absolutely dumbfounded when the product is consistently rendered useless (a lack of x64 support for a while, BSOD’s, constant corruption).*
*No amount of witticisms from Apple-thumpers are going to make me trade in my PC for a Mac. Don’t go there. Every other aspect of Windows Vista x64 works perfectly. There are far too many issues for this to be solely Windows Vista’s fault.*

Answer 1

_*Below is a list of a myriad of issues I have with iTunes 8 and have had with iTunes 7.*_
Whilst installing iTunes 8 it felt the need to kill explorer.exe, rendering my desktop unusable for ten minutes whilst it installed. Before it killed explorer it killed Windows Live Messenger for no apparent reason.
iTunes sometimes locks up completely when it is doing anything 'time consuming' (such as Genius scanning the library, downloading album artwork or searching for gapless albums). It also locks the entire computer rendering it unusable for sustained periods of time.
Resizing iTunes is a ghastly process, with the application rendering at 2-3 FPS.
iTunes uses a massive amount of CPU time for mundane tasks, consistently using over 50% whilst resizing (bearing in mind this is on a dual-core system, thus iTunes is using an entire core).
iTunes Toolbar on Windows Vista x64 is completely broken. None of the toolbar UI works and seems to be independent of iTunes itself.
Scrolling works 10% of the time using a mouse wheel. When it does work it goes nuts and scrolls all the way up, or all the way down.
Updating, restoring and synchronising an iPod Touch takes at least an hour and a half, with only 10gb of data to transfer.
Application updates do not install properly from iTunes and yet still log themselves as installed. After supposedly downloading and installing six updates, with iTunes saying no more updates, whilst connected and fully synchronised, my iPod Touch complained of all six updates needing to be downloaded.
iTunes UI regularly 'cuts to black' with a minimize/restore and a subsequent resize being the only thing that will get the UI to redraw.
A considerable amount of my album artwork has disappeared after upgrading to iTunes 8. I used to have at least 200/353 albums sorted, and now I have 72/353. How on Earth did iTunes manage to lose all of that artwork? I spent considerable time and effort sorting through all my artwork; it is indescribably frustrating to have to sort through it again.
My iPod Touch is regularly corrupted after synchronising with iTunes. That combined with the previously explained hour-and-a-half restore time makes for a very angry user.
The iTunes pause button frustratingly changes to a stop button if I do not have iTunes focused and I am looking at the original playlist.
Shutting down my computer without explicitly closing iTunes first consistently corrupts my library. I have to be super sure that iTunes isn’t running before I hit a ‘restart’ or a ‘shutdown’.
Exporting my iTunes library exports around 80% of my music. The last 20% seems to be left out at random (confirmed by several corruptions, followed by importing the music again. Different songs were missing every time). I would add them back manually but I have a very large amount of rated music.
Whilst updating my iPod Touch, iTunes forces a progress bar on top of itself. This renders iTunes unusable for half an hour whilst restoring and another half an hour whilst updating. With music playing loud this is very, very annoying. I daren’t force iTunes to close for fear that it might explode and take my library with it, as is usually the case. I end up just unplugging the sound for an hour.
Genius claims that you can continue working whilst it cycles through your library. This is only a half-truth. You can use iTunes if you are willing to wait around ten seconds for every click to register, then another second for iTunes to redraw.
*This is not a rant. This is a constructive list of problems FAO the iTunes Development Team. Many of these issues have been around since the release of iTunes 7.*
*These issues shouldn’t have made it to yet another release. In particular, a BSOD should definitely not have made it to release. I don’t mind paying a large amount for a sleek product (like an iPod Touch, for example), but I am absolutely dumbfounded when the product is consistently rendered useless (a lack of x64 support for a while, BSOD’s, constant corruption).*
*No amount of witticisms from Apple-thumpers are going to make me trade in my PC for a Mac. Don’t go there. Every other aspect of Windows Vista x64 works perfectly. There are far too many issues for this to be solely Windows Vista’s fault.*