IPhone will not appear in iTunes on Windows 7 (64) no matter what I do.

Question

Ok, so I recently updated my PC to Windows 7 (64), and set everything up again using Windows Easy Transfer. Originally iTunes installed using the version which the Apple Downloader picked up and was working reasonably okay. However, whilst I was playing around with the PC, I noticed that iTunes was installed in "Program Files (x86)". So i figured it must've installed the 32 bit version of iTunes on the PC instead, so off I went and uninstalled and installed the 64 bit version from here: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1047
During that installation, I noticed it too installs to the x86 directory so I ignored it. However, this is where the fun started. At first I noticed that as soon as I plugged in my iPhone 4, iTunes would freeze up, effectively going into a "Not Responding" mode. This would rectify however immediately after unplugging the iPhone.
So after a few attempts and getting the same result, I started searching the web for a solution. After which I tried the following: Deleting the USB drivers and attempted re-install. Drivers were deleted successfully, however once clicking on "Check for hardware changes" the Apple Device never again showed up. I then opened iTunes again, plugged in the iPhone again, and now noticed that iTunes no longer froze, however the iPhone did not appear. From this point, here is a list of all the things I have done, from both folowing the support (http://www.apple.com/support/iphone/assistant/itunes/) and other people's advice:
- Tried a different USB port.
- Uninstalled all Apple drivers.
- Uninstalled all Apple Software, including Apple Mobile Device, Apple
Automatic Update & Quicktime.
- Searched the registry and removed all references for iTunes.
- Deleted all iTunes folders from the computer.
- Deleted AppData temporary folder from my profile.
- Turned off and restarted the iPhone.
- Checked for software conflicts.
- Restarted the computer after each change.
- Reinstalled Apple Automatic Update from a fresh download.
- Reinstalled iTunes using the Automatic Update application.
From here I started iTunes again and plugged in my iPhone. This time however I got a message saying something along the lines of "cannot connect iPhone, required software is not installed, this is a 32bit version of iTunes, please uninstall and reinstall the 64bit version of iTunes (this is a little confusing as I learnt earlier that you cannot install the 32 bit version on a 64 bit machine as you get an error during installation).
So, again. I uninstalled all of iTunes and associated software, downloaded the 64bit version of iTunes again - thinking the original version of the EXE was corrupted somehow during the download. After reinstalling, I plugged in my iPhone. It showed that the device drivers were installing, however at some point they failed. I then went back into device manager and uninstalled the USB driver and clicked on "check for hardware changes". This time the iPhone was found and appeared to install the drivers successfully when I plugged the iPhone back in... but low and behold, the iPhone was still not showing up in iTunes.
I have spent a good few hours on this, and am getting pretty frustrated. Does anyone on here have an ACTUAL fix for this problem?
The only thing I haven't done is do a factory reset of my iPhone, which I'nm hesitant to do, as I haven't had a chance to "export my purchases" off the handset to the PC as yet.
Cheers,
Steve
PS: Just out of interest, the iPhone still connects perfectly fine on my work (XP) machine.

Answer 1

I'm an applications developer and also run a part-time videography business. As such, I require more than 3.12GB of RAM. That is the physical limitation of a 32bit system. Pointless to stay on 32bit if you plan on having more than that much RAM.
I'm also not about to pay someone to fix my PC when I can do it myself. I was originally hoping for someone who had experienced the problem before to point me in the right direction so I didn't have to spend so much time trying to figure out what the issue was for myself.
Basically, in the end the problem was caused because right at the point in time when I chose to uninstall, and reinstall; Apple released a new version of iTunes. This version in turn had a requirement of iOS 4.2 to sync with the iPhone. This is a pretty embarrassing for Apple that they would release software reliant on other software before said software was released.
Had I realised I was downloading a newer version at the initial point of installation, this wouldn't have been an issue. I could've easily have rolled back iTunes to the previous version and gotten on with my life.
Another issue is that iTunes is not actually a 64 bit application. It masquerades as one to allow installation on the 64 bit platform.