QuickTime Player has stopped working

If I run Quicktime from other user accounts it works fine. It also works fine if I run it "as administrator".

Those two symptoms suggest that your user account has lost a permission on a registry key or file or folder somewhere. Prospects aren't especially good for tracking down which particular permission or permissions has gone West for you, though.

Fingers crossed, your vista may have recorded some useful information for you on which particular file has gone bad.

Open your Problem Reports and Solutions control panel and look for QuickTime problem reports generated at the time of the errors. Open them up and have a look through.

Do they all seem to be saying pretty much the same thing? If so, please paste the contents of a typical problem report into a reply here so we can have a look.

Fault Module Name: StackHash_7bb1
Fault Module Version: 0.0.0.0

Unfortunately, roughly speaking, that one means "Vista doesn't know which module caused the crash either".

One workaround for this sort of trouble that works well for *Windows 7* is to set the QuickTimePlayer.exe to always run as an administrator in the account you're having the trouble in. Unfortunately again, it doesn't always work so well for Vista systems.

In your usual user account, quit QuickTime if you have it open.
In your Start menu, open Computer.
Open local disk C: or whichever drive you have your program files installed on.
*If you have a 32-bit Vista,* open the "program files" folder.
*If you have a 64-bit Vista,* open the "program files (x86)" folder.
Open the "QuickTime" folder.

Right-click on the QuickTimePlayer.exe file and select "Properties".
Go into the compatibility tab, and check the "Run as Administrator" checkbox.
Click OK.

Try launching QuickTime again ... does it launch? Or are you instead now getting one of the error messages described in the following document?

[Error -2096 message when opening QuickTime for Windows in Compatibility Mode|http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1875]

... okay, that makes things marginally less irritating, at least.

Any idea of how to fix the root cause of the problem? And why would an uninstall/reinstall of Quicktime not correct the issue?

Good question ... my working hypothesis runs like this.

A file or folder or registry key has lost a permission for your particular user account, but hasn't lost permissions for the administrators group. When we do the run as administrator thing, your QuickTime uses the permissions for the admin group rather than your user account, and so you don't get the error any more.

It's not necessarily a QuickTime file, folder or registry key that is causing the grief for us here. It could be an Apple Application Support (AAS) program file ... for some more info about the relationship between AAS and QuickTime, see:

[QuickTime for Windows and Apple Application Support|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2353984]

... or it could be an operating system dll or other resource that the QuickTimePlayer.exe is trying to call.

So if you've only been reinstalling QuickTime, then it's plausible that we might be able to get past this by doing a combined QuickTime/AAS reinstall if the file/folder/key(s) in question relate to AAS, but there's no guarantee of success there.

Do you have a 32-bit or 64-bit version of Vista, hotrod? That makes a bit of a difference to how I'd go about attempting a combbined AAS/QuickTime uninstall/reinstall.

🙂 Many thanks. Best to print off a copy of these instructions, because at one stage of proceedings you won't be able to use a web browser.

Preliminaries

Switch "Run as administrator" off in the QuickTimePlayer.exe compatibility tab.

Download and save a fresh copy of the QuickTimeInstaller.exe (installer file) from the following page. Get the option that doesn't mention iTunes. Don't run the install on line, and don't start the install just yet.

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/

Now quit all of iTunes, Safari and the MobileMe control panel if you have them installed and open. (They all use AAS, and may interfere with the uninstall if left open.)

*Uninstall phase*

Head into your Uninstall a program control panel. Uninstall QuickTime. Uninstall Apple Application Support.

(From this point, none of iTunes, Safari or the MobileMe control panel will launch until we reinstall AAS, which should happen when we reinstall QuickTime.)

Next we'll remove any leftover program files and folders.

In "Computer" open "Local Disk C:" (or whichever drive you have your program files installed on).
Open the "Program Files" folder.
Right-click on the "QuickTime" folder (if it still exists) and select "Delete".
Open the "Common Files" folder.
Open the "Apple" folder.
Right-click on the "Apple Application Support" folder (if it still exists) and select "Delete".
In "Computer" open "Local Disk C:" (or whichever drive you have your operating system installed on).
Open the "Windows" folder.
Open the "System32" folder.
Right-click on the "QuickTime" and "QuickTimeVR" files (if they still exist) and select "Delete".
Empty your Recycle Bin.

(If you got any error messages on the uninstalls and/or deletions, let us know what they say. Precise text, please.)

*Reinstall Phase*

Restart the PC. After the PC restarts do not open any applications. Disconnect from your network and/or the internet. Now switch off all your security software (firewall, antivirus, antispyware).

Now start the reinstall by doubleclicking the QuickTimeInstaller.exe file you downloaded earlier. (This should also reinstall Apple Application Support.)

Reenable all security software prior to reconnecting to your network and/or the internet.

... does QuickTime launch without the error this time? Or do we still have to do the "Run as administrator" thing?

iTunesHelper (window title)

Sorry, forgot about that one. The iTunesHelper.exe background process also uses AAS and it runs on startup ... hence the error message after the reboot. So nothing untoward about that message under the circumstances.

Okay, so it isn't obviously a file or folder permission causing us grief.

Do you have a reputable Registry cleaning application? If so, it might be worth running that to see if that cleans up any relevant damage to the registry.

... no, I'd leave the QuickT as it is. I had a check on my XP SP3 box in regedit, and saw the same QuickT in that value.

What does that key look like for you in your regedit? In mine, I'm seeing:

(Default) REG_SZ (value not set)
AppName REG_SZ QuickTim
ExePath REG_SZ C:\Program files\QuickT

(... The QuickTim isn't a typo ...)

Let's also have a look at the permissions on the key. (My Administrators, User account and System all have Full Control and Read permissions.)

One last throw of the dice ... perhaps we might have a UAC issue in the troublesome user account.

Try uncecking the "Run as administrator" box, and then (temporarily) switching off UAC. (If I recall correctly, you'll need to restart.) Now try launching QuickTime normally.

Does it launch without the error?

If so, try quitting the Player, switching UAC back on (possibly again requiring a restart), and then launching the player normally again.

Does it still open without the error?

(Sometimes, UAC troubles respond to toggling UAC like that.)

Good lord. If the issue is with a registry key, may that gives us a way into discovering which registry setiing is causing the trouble?

I've never down this before, so I'm not sure how effective would be. But the theory is that we export a copy of your HKEY CURRENTUSER branch of the registry with UAC enabled, export a copy of your HKEY CURRENTUSER branch of the registry with UAC disabled, and run a diff between the two using Windiff:

http://www.computerperformance.co.uk/vista/vistaregistrywindiff.htm

Then check through the diff for changes relating to QuickTime.

This could possibly narrow down the field of candidates for the dodgy registry entry. It could also provide us with a diff containing thousands of quicktime entries, and not leave us any better off in terms of identifying where the problem may lie ...