The last time I used iTunes for Windows was back at around an early version 7 release and even then it struck me a one big bloated piece of crap - hell it almost made Windows Media Player look anorexic. Now apparently it has reached an incredible 80meg in size for an install package. WTF are we installing here? Since when does a media player need to be an 80meg install?
However that isn’t the real problem that many Windows users are experiencing after installing the new iTunes. Many are reporting being hit by good old BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) system crashes and apparently the type of STOP messages that are being generated during the system crash are the type that indicate bad drivers trying to be loaded. Which if it is the case then as Ed Bott suggests after some serious digging then the blame can be laid directly at the feet of Apple and iTunes 8
I’m reading lots of complaints about the new iTunes 8 update causing horrific problems on Windows machines, including widespread reports of STOP errors, aka the Blue Screen of Death. My colleague Adrian Kingsley-Hughes has asked readers for reports and Gizmodo has a sketchy post as well. How can this be happening? Assuming that the underlying hardware is working correctly, STOP errors can only be caused by kernel-level drivers or system services. A poorly written program can crash itself but not the entire system. So how can a supposedly simple software update cause a fatal crash?
Maybe because this isn’t a simple software update. Once again, Apple is using its automatic update process to deliver massive amounts of new software to users, including a device driver that has a long and checkered history of causing the Blue Screen Of Death to appear. And it’s delivering this massive payload without even a pretense of proper disclosure and without asking consent from its users.
As Ed shows in his posts with a gallery of screen captures taken of the iTunes 8 install there is quite a bit of questionable activity going on. He also has a blow by blow write of the install process but it all boils down to two drivers that are a part of the install but aren’t reported anywhere. Additionally the one driver - GEARAspiWDM.sys has very long history of causing BSOD’s on Windows machines
But in addition to all that software, Apple is also sneaking a couple of driver updates onto the system. One is a USB controller update, which is apparently used when connecting an iPod or iPhone to the system. On my system, this driver file was copied to the system but was not installed until I connected an iPod Mini via a USB port. Most of the trouble reports on the Apple forum indicate that this driver is identifying itself in the text that appears on the STOP error page. The only clue that this driver is being installed is in the System Restore dialog box.
In addition to this driver, the system also updates the GEARAspiWDM.sys driver (in Windows\System32\Drivers). I had to dig deep to discover this change, which is not documented anywhere. This driver is typically used with third-party programs that write to CD and DVD drives. The old iTunes versions of this driver is dated January 29, 2008. The new one is from April 17, 2008. This driver has a long and colorful history of causing Windows crashes. I remember dealing with it back in Windows 2000 days. And sure enough, a search for GEARAspiWDM.sys BSOD turns up thousands of hits. I’ve also found anecdotal reports of this driver causing iTunes to crash, including this one from the Gear Software forum last May.
Given that this is a known problem caused by a driver that is being sneaked onto a Windows machine by the iTunes install one has to wonder why. After all one would think that a company like Apple wouldn’t want to disillusion Windows users by deliberately installing a known faulty driver would you?
As Ed said on his other blog post about the issue
And one of those drivers is one that’s been causing BSODs with Windows for as long as I can remember. Nice marketing strategy: Tweak Microsoft for an operating system that crashes, then ship code that crashes Windows. Thank goodness I’m not a cynic or I’d think this was a deliberate marketing strategy.
But then as one of the commenters said in the comments of the first post
iTunes ain’t done ’til Windows won’t run
Apple wouldn’t do that sort of thing would they? Naaa …. of course ….. not …..
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