ITunes not opening for last few weeks (Windows 2000)

Question

I haven't been able to get my iTunes to work in a few weeks. I try to open it, I usually get no error messages at all (once in a while I get one that just says that itunes.exe encountered errors and needed to close), I do get the hourglass for a split second, and then nothing happens. I've also had Task Manager open to see what happens when I try to open it. iTunes.exe does appear for a split second.
First, I'm running Win2k, iTunes version 4.7 (yes, I know it's archaic - I've had it since it was current and never had problems). I have a dial-up connection (unfortunately). I do have Norton Antivirus, but it's the 2003 edition (obviously updated, so I don't know if that makes a difference). I don't have Norton Internet Security. I've been using this antivirus program for about 9 months with no problems for over 8 of those months. I don't know that the antivirus program is a problem in this case. As well, I can't think of what I could have installed or changed on my computer to prevent iTunes from operating all of a sudden. Also, I do have a firewall (McAfee), but I've had that for years and it has never interfered with any of my installed programs.
I did download the newest version of iTunes yesterday, but it won't install (something about a missing or corrupt DLL - it doesn't name which one). I'm not too bothered by that. I'd rather have my old iTunes working. Anyway, I think the problem must be something other than needing the newest version.
I've seen a lot of instructions (many from 2005 that seem similar to what I'm experiencing) like opting to 'view all hidden files' and then delete a file from the sc info folder (http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=823094#823094). I've read through the entire board and searched, scanned, and otherwise followed many of the instructions. Nothing has worked so far. I stress that I've been using iTunes for a few years now (always the same version), and I've never had any problems.
I'm not totally sure that I don't have some kind of extra-tricky malware that my three spyware programs aren't detecting.
Any help, hints, or insights would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Answer 1

So you have reinstalled Quicktime and it now works OK?
Which version was that?
A working quicktime means that we now know that any problems you have with iTunes are not because Quicktime doesn't work.
Silent launch failures of iTunes with a working QT, i.e. one with out error messages have their own set of causes, although your version of iTunes is a bit before my time. One of the key points with them is whether iTunes persists in the task manager or not after it fails.
With more recent versions of iTunes, silent failures with a non persisting iTunes tend to be due to digital signing issues once spyware is excluded. However I do not know if digital signing affects the early versions of iTunes or Windows 2000. My impression is that it is an issue that appeard recently.
The issue is discussed for Windows XP in this article:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302856
Under: Fix digital signing of Windows drivers
Also: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/813442
I wonder if it worth trying to install a more recent version of iTunes say, iTunes 6.0.5, that was the last version of iTunes 6 and seemed to work pretty well. If you want to give it a go, you can get it from Apple here:
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/itunes605forwindows.html
Or Old Apps.com
http://www.oldapps.com/itunes.htm
If you are going to do that I would do a complete removal of iTunes first, there are instructions in the next link, but just follow the section for remove iTunes.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93698
I am not sure if any of this will help you, it is a shame bnoir isn't around as he is the expert on this kind of thing and was around in the iTunes 4 days.