Possible solution to iTunes 6 not opening, and B Noir is a genius

Question

Hello
Im a first time poster here, and I have had some success getting my iTunes 6 update to work after I was experiencing the same problems that many posters here have had. I thought I would share how I fixed it, and maybe it would help someone else out.
I upgraded to iTunes 6, and it wouldnt open. After doing a little searching, I saw that a lot of people that had problems had Norton Internet Security. I figured for sure that was my problem.
So, after a couple hours of trying different fixes, I finally figured I would uninstall NIS, and get another firewall/virus software. iTunes STILL would not open! (Neither would Quicktime).
I ran MSCONFIG with the following steps (This was found on another thread on this forum)
1. Start > Run > type "msconfig" and press enter
2. Go to the services tab
3. check "hide all Microsoft services"
4. click disable all
5. find "iPodService" and check that one (so its the only process)
6. go to the startup tab
7. click disable all
8. check qttask and ituneshelper so they are the only programs checked
9. restart
When I restarted, iTunes started fine. However, this isnt the end to the solution. This basically shuts all other services down on your PC.
I had read in another post here by B Noir (who seems to be able to fix all problems if you post it! Thanks B) that there are a lot of malware exe's that can get on your machine that are 6 character .exe files. I started MSCONFIG again, paid close attention to all of the things on the 'Startup' tab, and sure enough - I had a file named YCRIYK.EXE that looked completely unfamiliar. I also googled it, and only got back three suspicious hits, one of which was an Asian website that I couldnt read, the other ones being related to spyware. I should also add that I am relatively paranoid when it comes to spyware/viruses, and that in addition to NIS, I also run Adaware, as well as several other spyblocking tools pretty often - I have no idea what this file is or how it got on my PC.
So, I turned all other services BACK ON (using the steps from MSCONFIG) EXCEPT for that one. I also reinstalled NIS to verify that indeed it was not the problem. Im assuming that this was some type of malware conflicting with either Quicktime or iTunes, because making sure that didnt start fixed my problem, and iTunes/Quicktime is working now.
Good luck to you all. I know how frustrating this can be!
Dell Dimension 8200 Windows XP
Windows XP
Windows XP

Answer 1

I can sympathize with your situation, archerdave1.
Firewall software and anti-virus software are supposed to prevent things from running on your computer. This is to protect you from malicious software running without your knowing about it.
If you run firewall and anti-virus software, it is your job to tell those utilities which programs (eg iTunes) that you want to be exempt from their operations. You have to manually configure your firewall and anti-virus software to play nice with iTunes or any other similar program. This is not Apple's fault, and it's not Microsoft's fault. You as the user have to learn how to do this.
You also need to know how to use msconfig.
For all the above reasons, Windows computers are very hard to work with and configure these days. I'm a professional computer technician, and it bothers me that people who really don't like to tweak computers are going out and buying Windows systems. They are just too complex.
There is a perfect solution to your problem. You can switch to Macintosh. Since there is NO spyware and NO viruses that affect Mac OS X, you can ignore all those anti-virus and anti-spyware headaches and just enjoy using your computer.
Moral of the story: If you don't want to tweak and configure your computer constantly to protect against malicious security problems, just get a Mac. Problem solved.