Ipod shows in Windows, not in iTunes - it used to work!

Question

I've tried everything I could find on the site to remedy this - resetting ipod when connected and when not connected, removing everything itunes and ipod related & reinstalling, changing iPod's drive letter, etc.
The problem started when our sysadmin migrated us to the domain. I now get an explorer window showing the iPod contents, but iTunes says: "The software required for communicating with the iPod is not installed correctly." When I start iTunes and then attach the iPod I get this message when the explorer window pops up. What else can I do to debug this?

Answer 1

but I can't delete them. I get the message "Cannot open IPodService.iPodManager: Error while opening key.". I wrote a little program to try to open or delete these keys, and I get error 5 - Access denied.
good lord. if you're capable of doing that, you're way better with registries than i am. but i might be able to keep pumping observation and experience from reports here on the forums at you, that might be helpful with this.
i've seen one report of someone not being able to open one of those keys, but i wasn't able to follow up on it. but i've had some more experience with "sticky" keys in some threads dealling with recalcitrant installation errors. (typically 1406s and 1402s.) let's try to transfer some of those techniques over to this situation.
I don't see any iPod apps or services running. What could be locking these registry entries?
okay, although iPodService.exe is our main process/service relevant to the ipod, iTunesHelper.exe is also associated with iPod connections:
Background processes installed with iTunes 6 for Windows
so lets try locking that one down too in MSCONFIG prior to any attempts at registry edits:
Using MSCONFIG to troubleshoot conflicts in Windows
other possibilities ... (bit of a long shot since you tried a registry edit in safe mode with no joy) i've seen people be unable to edit registry keys on some PCs if they have an antivirus application running at the same time (which makes a perverse sort of sense). other applications might also be implicated in that sort of behavior. so prior to any registry edits, let's try shutting down all background applications (including TSRs) prior to the edit. try the techniques from this InstallShield document:
Close Applications Running in the Background
(if you can get this to allow the reg edits, try it prior to the reinstall attempt too. if it's blocking your regedits, it will probably block the registry key modifications during the install too.)
... and we'd better check on malware too. some malware does lock down registries in unusual ways (to prevent removal, i guess, but an incidental horking of some registry keys isn't out of the question.)
let's get some fresh definitions onto your PC and check for viruses and spyware. you might want to also try an "online" scan with your security software provider to try to cover the possibilities where the security software on the PC has been compromised. (or if your tech support has some advanced "off-PC" antimalware techniques, i'd try throwing those at the beast.
keep us posted.
love, b