How to disable itunes helper and apple mobile device service

Question

Level 1

5 points

How to disable itunes helper and apple mobile device service

I am running iTunes 7.3 under XP. I do not have an iPod or iPhone. Is there any reason I would want iTuneshelper and/or apple mobile device service using system resources? If not, can I use iTunes to shut them off, or will I have to exterminate them with Winpatrol, as I have done with iPod Service in the past?

thanks,

dale

Dell XPS M1710, Windows XP Pro

Posted on Jul 10, 2007 7:37 PM

Answer 1

Jul 11, 2007 4:05 AM in response to Smaug123

iTunes has no setting to disable the ituneshelper.exe or the iPodService. The first one can be deleted without any problems. But the Service has to be disabled in the MMC. Go to the Services-page and set the Autostart-Option to "Disabled". Kill the Service and it doesn't appear any longer.

Answer 2

Smaug123 Author

Level 1

5 points

Jul 11, 2007 6:43 PM in response to King-of-Darkness

Thanks,

I can kill these services easily enough. I was mostly wondering if there was any real reason I might not want to?? Seems to be a lot of debate on this issue in non-apple forums. Also with apple mobile device service - it seems to be a separate program which could be uninstalled from add/remove programs - BUT does it actually add any functionality to iTunes itself (which I use a lot). If every program we installed also installed a second 33mb program, hogged 20mb of memory and was monitoring the ports on our computers non-stop with no way to turn unwanted features off, I think we would all be pretty upset.

Thanks again

dale

Answer 3

Jul 12, 2007 2:19 AM in response to Smaug123

I don't know wheter the apple mobile device helper could be deinstalled without problems. Some services (like the ipodhelper) could not be deinstalled without getting a reinstallation at the next start of iTunes. - Test it, post it and then we know.
But your question is answered, am I right?

Greetings
Johannes

Answer 4

polydorus

Level 6

11,977 points

Jul 12, 2007 3:23 AM in response to Smaug123

I uninstalled Apple mobile services with out any problems after installing iTunes 7.3.1

You need to have all other programs closed when you do it IIRC.