How do I download iCloud on a Windows PC if I don't have Windows 7 or 8?

Question

I have had a iPod 2nd Gen for 3 years now, and I've wanted to update it for a long time. (I thought about buying a new one, but they're too expensive, and before you know it the iPod 6th Gen will be out the week after I buy the new model.) I didn't want to lose all of my iTunes spendings and apps, and one of my friends told me about iCloud. I thought I would give it a shot, excited. I knew it wasn't as easy as it looked. We only have Windows XP and Vista. Not Windows 7 or 8, which is needed to download iCloud. It would be great if there was another way to to download it without going to all the trouble of updating my computers, which would cost as much as a new iPod. Any help is much appreciated, thanks!

Answer 1

You could install iCloud on your Vista computer (if running Vista SP2) using iCloud control panel for Windows 2.1.2: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1687.  However, you can't run iCloud on an iPod Touch Gen 2.  iCloud requires iOS 5 or higher and your iPod can't be updated beyond 4.2.1.
If you want to back it up on your computer using iTunes, connect it to your computer, launch iTunes and sync it.  It will automatically back it up to your computer when it syncs.  (There is more inforation on this in this article under "iTunes: How to Back Up": http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1766.)  If you never synced with iTunes before you might not want to do this as it will remove all your purchased media from your iPod and replace it with the media in your iTunes library.
Also, you can always redownload your purchased media again if you need to, as long as it's still in the iTunes & App Store, by following this article: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2519.