Itunes 8 - won't run - a required i Tunes component is not installed

It sounds as though you have done pretty much everything but since you don't say exactly what you did...

Did you use the following article to remove all iTunes components and Quicktime:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1923

The most important bit which can be forgotten is to remove any file or folder with Quicktime in the name from the system32 folder.

Presumably all the uninstalls went though with out error? If not the Microsoft Installer cleanup utility needs to be used to clean up the installer files.

Have you ever installed any of the following:
ACE & K-Lite mega codecs package, QT alternative, Storm codec, WinAVI video converter
If so they should be uninstalled. They are know to be bad news for Quicktime.

The list may not be complete, any alternative to QUicktime or converster that uses QUicktime files might be a possible source of trouble.


It is also useful to download the version of QUicktime without iTunes and install that before iTunes.
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/win.html


P.S. Could you check to see if you have a file called Quicktime.cpl in your system 32 folder. That is a sign that you have or have had problem software installed as Quicktime does not put the cpl file in the system 32 folder.

Message was edited by: polydorus

I am getting stuck now. There is one thing you could do to try and get a diagnosis if you like a bit of experimentation.

Download Filemon from here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896642.aspx

There are some instructions for using on the page.
Set the filter to iTunes.exe so you only see iTunes output.

You want it to create a log file and you want all the output - IIRC you set the output limit to 0.

I am using a limited user account at the moment so I can't check the details at the moment, but if you have difficulty with it, I can switch accounts.

Set filemon running and try to start iTunes.
When it has failed save the log file and open it in WordPAd. The file will be pretty big but hopefully towards the end of it there will be some indication which component it was trying to find when it failed. Maybe that will help work out what is wrong with the installation.

P.S.
I found a post in which someone suggested that turning off UAC during the Quicktime install helped, otherwise that had done pretty much what you have done:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8056494&

Message was edited by: polydorus

Also another thought go to Control Panel>>Administrative Tools>>Event Views after iTunes has crashed and see if you can find a more detailed error message there.

I am experiencing EXACTLY the same issue:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1725496&tstart=0

I have been trying to resolve this for 4 weeks.

Update: iTunes 8.01 does not resolve this problem.

I will try the logging suggestion above and post results asap - at present I have to leave.

Any help with this will be extremely appreciated - I have given up hope.

Regards,

Bartek.

I also have this problem (-42404). My Macs are fine but my vista laptop suffers from this. Curiously everything was fine, then I loaded bonjour on my vista machine and itunes 7 would not start (not sure if it was exactly the same fault).Loaded itunes 8 thinking it would cure the problem but it has not. Anyone else had this problem who recently loaded Bonjour?.

Could be a co-incidence also.

This issue continues to prevent me from syncing my ipgone with itunes.

I find it absolutely amazing that Apple has no interest in answering these questions on their own forums. I have been stuck with no sync on my iphone for months now. I have tried every suggestion on these forums and wasted around 15 hours trying to resolve this issue. All other apps function correctly on my system. Apple phone support suggested I reinstall Vista! There has to be a better solution. I am a software developer, and I can't imagine suggesting that a user reinstalls an otherwise perfectly functioning operating system. What if I reinstall and the same issue occurs again?

Apple - please investigate these issues and address in Itunes 8.2. Why isn't there an app which checks a user's system for itunes registry entries/system conflicts?

I would really appreciate any new suggestions from users of this forum. This is a very frustrating error.

Thanks.

I am having the same problem, this is unbelievable

I recently tried to install iTunes 8.0.2 and got the same error message.

In the installation program I used the Tools menu option to download the setup programs and run them manually. When I ran the iTunes setup program it gave me an error message that I didn't have the correct permissions for the pcast registry key.

I was able to work around the problem by changing the permissions on the Computer\HKEY CLASSESROOT\pcast registry key. I added my user account and Administrators with Full permissions on the key and re-ran the installation program and it worked!

I did have to do a couple of reboots, but then I was in business again.

I hope this helps.

one thing one needs to realize is that Apple's messages, which may be better than the dumb MS messages, still are not very specific. So one needs to be careful not to jump without thinking to try solution said to work for other people, for that may not help and actually make things worth.

I'm just sharing my own experience, when seemingly out of the blue, clicking on the itunes ikon brought out a message that my itunes (I had v. 8.0) has detected a problem with my audio configuration, and my audio/video playback may not operate properly. Sure enough, when the itunes opened, it would not play.

As a solution to this problem, someone suggested that the problem is with quicktime, that can be solved by uninstalling and reinstalling it. Unfortunately it was not the right solution for the problem I was having, because when I reinstalled quicktime, it did not just failed to solve the problem with itunes audio, it caused it to fail to open at all, with that 42404 error reported by others. And more than that, it also knocked out sound entirely, for other players including on the internet. OMG.

On advice of some smart guy on another forum, other audios were restored in services > windows audio. Somehow, installing quicktime managed to stop that service. But it was no help for itunes.

To make a long story short, what worked for me was to run Apple software update utility, which brought up an installation window for itunes + quick time 8.0.2. After installation was complete, upon reboot, itune opened and worked fine.

I'll never know what caused the problem with "audio configuration," but I do know the cause of the 42404 message. It was the apparent incompatibility b/n having installed up-to-date quick time, while still having not quite up-to-date itunes.