ITunes/Windows 7 compatibility

Every time I try to start iTunes with Windows 7 I get a message that "iTunes.exe has been set to run in compatibility mode for an older version of Windows. For best results, turn off compatibility mode for iTunes before you open it."
If I ignore it, iTunes opens OK and seems to work, at least for synching with my iPod.
I have tried unchecking the ccmpatibility box in the iTunes properties, and using XP or Vista. None makes any difference.
I have tried checking then unchecking the previously-unchecked LAN settings box in the Control Panel|Internet Options|Connections tab. That makes no difference. Surely I do not have to live with this? I can't load iTunes without bird-dogging it and clicking OK in the error dialog box first.

Home brew PC, Windows 7, Lots of memory and disc space

Posted on Jun 27, 2010 5:15 PM

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13 replies

Jun 27, 2010 5:35 PM in response to Asker24

I have tried unchecking the ccmpatibility box in the iTunes properties, and using XP or Vista. None makes any difference.


Are any boxes whatsoever (not just the compatibility mode box itself) checked in the Compatibility tab, Asker? (Having any of the other boxes checked in there can produce a click-through compatibility warning message.) If there are any checked boxes, uncheck them all and try launching iTunes again. Does that get rid of the message?

Jul 6, 2010 9:51 AM in response to b noir

Thank you, b noir. That did the trick. Now I understand why the problem was still there after a clean boot. I had wondered if it might be due to other software on the startup list. When I followed this set of registry-editing instructions, rather than remove the culprit item, i just renamed iTunes.exe to iTunesx.exe - safer, as a matter of principle? This seems to be an appropriate solution for both 32 and 64 bit circumstances.

Jul 6, 2010 2:59 PM in response to Asker24

🙂 Excellent news.

It's not a bad workaround if you'd prefer not to spend time in the registry (which I understand completely). One disadvantage is that (since the registry entry is still there), you'll probably have to reapply the workaround after the next time you update iTunes (because the update will drop a "fresh" iTunes.exe on your system).

... because you're on Windows 7, an additional thought occurs to me. On my XP system, compatibility mode settings are user-account specific. But on 7 systems, there's an option to apply changes to compatibility mode settings across all user accounts.

Are there other user accounts up and running on the PC? If so, it might be worth checking through the compatibility mode tabs for iTunes in those other accounts, just in case someone has a setting in place that is being "pushed across" to your user account (but is not displaying in the iTunes compatibility mode tab for you ... I've seen odd things of similar sorts related to compatibility settings that suggest that such an effect might be possible).

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ITunes/Windows 7 compatibility

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