Vista Glitches Still Bugging iTunes Users

When Curtis Chan installed iTunes 7.1 on his Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Windows Vista machine, he noticed that a screen pop-up window would inform him that he does not have permission to write to the library and that changes cannot be saved.

However, this only seems to happen when there are a lot of updates made to the library, instead of a few, he told MacNewsWorld. Nevertheless, it is a nagging problem.

"Nothing significant has been lost," noted Chan, a college relations coordinator at the Penn State University College of Engineering. "But it is very frustrating since I went through the processes of identifying the tags and so on, and with one click of the mouse they are gone," he added.

It is also troubling because these iTunes and Vista compatibility issues problems have still not been completely resolved, a month after Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) warned PC users not to install Vista until they had resolved the glitches between iTunes and the operating system.

Friendly With Vista?

Nevertheless, Apple has made progress. Some of the earlier problems -- such as the corruption of an iPod when ejected from a Vista PC -- appear to be solved.

However, other issues remain. Apple says it is actively working with Microsoft to resolve a few remaining known issues, according to a posting on its Web site.

These include difficulties in synchronizing Windows contacts in the iPod, poorly displayed text and graphics of iTunes and, most importantly, the lack of support for the 64-bit editions on both Windows XP and Windows Vista.

One of the culprits is Vista's User Account Control (UAC), which provides a new security architecture, William Stanek, author of Windows Vista: The Definitive Guide, told MacNewsWorld. "It changes the way programs and users interact with the OS. Some of that is interfering with the way programs run and map themselves into the Windows registry," he stated.

Despite the lag in upgrades, iTunes users should definitely move onto 7.1, Stanek advised. "It doesn't fix all of the incompatibility issues but it has resolved some serious issues," he said, referring to the problems with the ejection process corrupting iPods.

Minimal Impact

The incompatibility issues between iTunes and Vista have caused little inconvenience, Matt Dworkin, a technician with the Geek Squad, told MacNewsWorld.

"In general, whenever you upgrade to a new OS or software, you will have these problems," he stated.

Dworkin has advised customers to upgrade to Vista to take advantage of its new features. "Microsoft and Apple are working quickly to resolve the remaining compatibility issues."

This may take longer than the companies are indicating, given that there is still not a seamless exchange between Windows XP and iTunes. Chan, for instance, reported that sometimes album art gets deleted and does not show up in cover flow.

"From what I can see, there is no rhyme or reason behind the glitch (which occurs with both XP and Vista)," he explained.

Also, sometimes the track number is lost -- for example, rather than being labeled "track 3 of 12," it becomes "track 3," Chan added. Another glitch occurs when the album artist name on certain soundtracks is changed to either "BSO" or "soundtrack" when the original album artist tag was either an individual artist or was labeled various artists, he concluded.

64-Bit Support

One area that few consumers are worried about is Apple's lack of support for 64-bit computing. This is more of a corporate concern for the moment. However, Stanek noted, 64-bit will dominate a larger share in the future.

"Apple really needs to fix that compatibility issue. Windows' 64-bit wasn't very popular -- it only had a small segment of the market. But with Windows Vista, it will comprise a much larger segment of the market," he predicted.