Unable to uninstall QuickTime to upgrade iTunes.

Hello. I am trying to download the newest version of iTunes. The error message I get says that the old version of QuickTime cannot be removed and to contact my technical support. I have tried all suggestions (add/remove, deleting files directly, etc.). I have been told that I must reinstall QuickTime in order to retreive the install file (that I deleted at the suggestion of a tech support person), but I am unable to reinstall due to same problem. iTunes support says it is a permission problem. Dell support says I should restore back to a previous date because of the deleted QuickTime file, however the problem existed before I delete files from the folders directly and this fix did not work either. I have gone through every QuickTime file I can find at the guidance of yet another tech support person and haven't had any luck. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Now my iTunes isn't working at all because of deleted files. Thank you.

 

Create a new user, of type Administrator.
Logon as this new user, then logoff.

Logon as this new user again and try reinstalling the software. This should replace the missing files.

 

Thank you for your reply. I am already designated as administrator on my account. Do you mean that I should open an additional administrator account?

 

reinstall quicktime , then uninstall

See as admin if you can install the quicktime.
Then reboot and try to uninstall.
Usually solves the problem.

 

Yes, exactly.

Create a brand new user account of type Administrator.

Use that.

 

Thank you. I will try that.

 

To BillCastner

I appreciate your help. I tried creating a new administrator account. Then logged on and tried to download iTunes. I'm getting the same error message which says "The older version of QuickTime cannot be removed. Contact your technical support group ". The program then stops loading. Any further suggestions would be appreciated.

 

Quicktime:
Go to 'Start' -> 'Run'
Type 'regedit' and click 'OK'
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Apple Computer, Inc.\QuickTime\ActiveX
Find the value QTTaskRunFlags, right click on it and change the value to 0

Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
Delete the value pointing to qttask.exe
That should stop it running automatically when you start windows or when you open Quicktime.

Reboot.

Logon as your new user.

Download just Quicktime.
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/standalone.html

Install that first.

Then install iTunes.

Then remove Quicktime.

 

To Bill Castner again

Hello again. I tried your suggestions and it seemed to be making progress then I got the message "The Path (it showed the pathname) to QuickTime.msi cannot be found ". It then suggested I find the right path and plug that in. I tried a search and it seems I don't have that file and therefore cannot download QuickTime. Is there any other way to obtain the file? I might have deleted it at the suggestion of an iTunes tech support person who was trying to help me. Thank you!

 

It is at top left, second radio button.

 

If that don't work do the following.

Download the following file http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/RegSeeker/1035382760/1

Install it.

Boot to SAFE MODE.

Search-Files or folders

Set advanced search to search hidden and system files. Set search only c:

1. Do a disk search for quickti*.*

2. Delete all references to Quicktime. Make sure it is not quickt??? anything else.

Run Regseeker that you installed. Click on find in registry
quicktime
Delete all entrys found.

Run Clean the Registry delete all.

Reboot.

That should do it.

Mike

 

Hi Bill, I guess I wasn't clear. I did go through all of the steps you suggested then attempted to download just quicktime (I checked the second button). While it was downloading I got the error message. It seems that the download will not happen unless I have this missing file. Thanks.

 

Mike.

Thank you Mike. I will try your suggestion.

 

For Mike

Mike, I did a disk search for quickti*.* and had zero results. When I searched again for QuickTime I got 427 files. Now I don't know if I should really delete all of them not knowing exactly what they do. Some of the search results showed up in blue type, which makes me think they are something I shouldn't delete. They have names like migapp, migwiz and spuninst (lots of these). Should I go ahead and delete them all, all except the blue ones, none of them? Thank you for any advice.

 

No something is wrong if they don't begin with Quicktime. Do not delete files that are not quicktime.

Are you sure you searched in "Files or folders named "?

Do not search in the block "Containing Text.

You should find files like: QuickTime.qts,quicktime.dct and perhaps a folder named QuickTime.

Another way to search and remove is as follows:

In SAFE MODE

RegSeeker

Click on Find in Registry

Check "Find files "

Search for quickti*.*

If all files are named quicktime or something click select all. They will all be high lighted yellow. Hit the DEL key to delete them.

A find in RegSeeker or Windows XP search that looks like this is OK to delete.

C:\windows\temp\quicktime.aab
or
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Apple Computer\QuickTime

Deleting these only get the file named quicktime?? at the end and not the whole path like say

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Apple Computer\

So in Nutshell

Safe mode then regseeker
search registry
first do FILES quickti*.*
then
uncheck files and search for quicktime (do not use the *.* in a registry search).

All we are doing here is deleteing all references to Quicktime on the disk. Then removeing them from the registry.

Mike

 

Mike or any other suggestions.

Mike, I tried your suggestion about Regseeker and it seemed to be working like a charm until it was time to delete the files. I selected all, they were highlighted yellow but after I hit delete nothing happened. It seemed to freeze up. Ugh! This is getting so frustrating! Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

You likely have permissions issues.

Let's use HijackThis to resolve running processes that are in the way:

I will provide back the entries I would like you to have HijackThis remove.

 

OK.

Remember this should be done in SAFE MODE!

In Regseeker there is a check in the bottom left.

Click it then click select all.

Then to the right of that is Action.

Click that and click delete all.

This should be done on the Find Files and the Find in registry.

Don't forget that after both of the above are done Click "Clean the registry" in RegSeeker and remove those as well.

Mike

 

Bill and Mike

Thank you for your quick replies. Bill I will try your suggestion when I get more time later today.

Mike, yes I did everything correctly. I was in safe mode, and in the find files location in regseeker. After searching for the files, I clicked on the select all check in the lower lefthand corner and the files highlighted in yellow. The action function however was shaded out and would not let me select it, so I did a delete key then clicked OK. That is when nothing happened.

 

OK Bill and I were posting at the same time.

Yes you do have permission problems.

Follow Bill's advice.

Once permissions are reset the proceedure will work.

Mike