iTunes 8 and 9 on Windows XP x64

UPDATE: Softpedia reports that Apple has re-released iTunes 8 to address the crashes when connecting an iPod/iPhone. Their article is dated 9/15, but Apple’s support page was last updated 9/12. My guide was originally written 9/13, and appears to link to the new version of the file. The URL contains “20080911”, implying that it’s from 9/11 (iTunes 8 was originally released 9/9). Visiting Apple’s download page today returns the same download URL that is listed in this guide.

UPDATE 2: Apple has released iTunes 8.0.1. I’ve updated the URL, dated October 2, below.

UPDATE 3: Apple has released iTunes 8.0.2 (the page says October 20, but the link and other reports indicate that it’s from November 20). I also noticed that http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/ now includes a link to http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/itunes801forwindows64bit.html, which contains a direct download link for the 64-bit version of iTunes. Let’s hope that Apple continues this trend, which will allow anyone to easily download the file and jump directly to the installation steps (whether or not someone like me has taken the time to work through all this cruft and post the link for others).

UPDATE 4: iTunes 8.1 was released last week (March 13). Again, they link to a page for the 64-bit download.

UPDATE 5: iTunes 8.1.1 was released April 6. They link to the same page for the 64-bit download.

UPDATE 6: iTunes 8.2 was released June 1. They now link to http://support.apple.com/downloads/iTunes_8_2_for_Windows__64_bit_ for the 64-bit download. Updated URL, but the download page is still easily accessible. With this version, I needed to use Orca to edit the version value under LaunchCondition for AppleMobileDeviceSupport64.msi as well.

UPDATE 7: iTunes 8.2.1 was released July 15. http://support.apple.com/downloads/iTunes_8_2_1_for_Windows__64_bit_ has the 64-bit download link. Once again, I needed to use Orca to edit the version value under LaunchCondition for AppleMobileDeviceSupport64.msi as well.

UPDATE 8: iTunes 9 was released September 9. Continuing as they’ve done in the past, http://support.apple.com/downloads/iTunes_9_for_Windows__64_bit_ has the 64-bit download link. I still needed to use Orca to edit the version value under LaunchCondition for AppleMobileDeviceSupport64.msi as well. I seem to be having some issues getting the iPodService to start, causing the install to fail. I don’t actually manage any devices on this PC, so I’ll see if I can get around that.

UPDATE 9: iTunes 9.0.1 was released September 22. The 64-bit download page is at http://support.apple.com/kb/DL925 now. With version 9, something in the iPodService changed, causing it to not run properly on XP x64. This causes the install to fail. After removing some of the service-related stuff in the installer, I was able to get 9 installed without the iPodService installed. This allows you to use the iTunes app, but prevents device syncing. I’ve been trying to get 9 to install while leaving the (working) 8 service in place. I haven’t had much luck yet.

The Preparation

Apple just released iTunes 8, and it still doesn’t support the 64-bit version of Windows XP. The original 32-bit WinXP and both 32- and 64-bit versions of Vista are supported, but not XP x64. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1426 is regarding 7.6, but nothing appears to have changed with 8. You can see the posts at http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1049345 and http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1416259&tstart=0 stating that it’s still a problem.

I had previously used the guide at http://yukichigai.googlepages.com/iphonex64 to get iTunes 7.6 working in XP x64, so I figured it would be pretty simple to do the same with iTunes 8. The guide had a link to the 64-bit installer and stated that you could open http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/ in IE x64 to download it also. I assume I just used the link that was provided to get my copy of iTunes64Setup.exe.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a link to download the new version of the file, iTunes864Setup.exe. When you open the iTunes download page in IE x64 on WinXP, it only gives you the option to download the 32-bit version. I’m not sure if 7.6 did that as well, but there’s no easy way to get that link for 8 in XP x64.

I assumed that Apple, like many websites, used your web browser’s User Agent string to determine what version of Windows you have. I went to http://www.zytrax.com/tech/web/browser_ids.htm and found the details of what Vista uses for a UA string. I took Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.0; WOW64; SLCC1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506; Media Center PC 5.0; .NET CLR 1.1.4322) and converted my existing to UA to mimic Vista.

I used the registry settings at http://www.pctools.com/guides/registry/detail/799/ to change IE’s UA string and browsed back to the iTunes download page. The download did work but IE doesn’t show the full URL and my download manager wasn’t catching it out of IE x64 (probably because the download manager is 32-bit and is restricted from plugging into IE’s 64-bit process).

To get the direct URL of the x64 iTunes 8 download, I used the User Agent Switcher addon for Firefox. I created a new entry for IE7 on Vista x64 and went back to the iTunes download page. However, it still gave me the 32-bit download in Firefox, even with the Vista x64/IE7 UA.

I went back to the iTunes download page in IE x64 (spoofing Vista’s UA) and started monitoring with Wireshark. I started the download, and Wireshark was able to see the URL that was being requested. I finally had the direct URL!

The Install

Once the file was downloaded, I was able to proceed with the iTunes 7.6 guide. I extracted the MSI files out of iTunes864Setup.exe using 7-Zip. I installed the AppleMobileDeviceSupport64.msi file. I already had the QuickTime files from QT Lite. I opened up iTunes64.msi in Orca and changed the version from 600 to 501, then installed it. I installed the GEAR burning drivers. I skipped the last part about manually choosing the iPhone drivers, as I don’t have an iPhone and just want iTunes 8 for the HD features.

After rebooting to complete the GEAR driver installation and copying GEARAspiWDM.sys as the guide suggests, I no longer get the warning about CD burning upon starting iTunes. I was able to open up iTunes and watch the free HD episodes they’re currently offering.

Here’s a screenshot of my final results. (Clean white background achieved by putting the windows in front of a maximized Notepad window.)
iTunes 8 on XP x64

That’s all it took to complete my upgrade to iTunes 8 and document it for others.

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