apple mobile device support missing

Let's try a standalone Apple Mobile Device Support install. It still might not install, but fingers crossed any error messages will give us a better idea of the underlying cause of why it's not installing under normal conditions.

Download and save a copy of the iTunesSetup.exe (or iTunes64setup.exe) installer file to your hard drive:

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

Download and install the free trial version of WinRAR suitable for your PC (there's a 32-bit Windows version and a 64-bit Windows version):

http://www.rarlab.com/download.htm

Right-click the iTunesSetup.exe (or iTunes64setup.exe), and select "Extract to iTunesSetup" (or "Extract to iTunes64Setup"). WinRAR will expand the contents of the file into a folder called "iTunesSetup" (or "iTunes64Setup").

Go into the folder and doubleclick the AppleMobileDeviceSupport.msi (or AppleMobileDeviceSupport64.msi) to do a standalone AMDS install.

(If it offers you the choice to remove or repair, choose "Remove", and if the uninstall goes through successfully, see if you can reinstall by doubleclicking the AppleMobileDeviceSupport.msi or AppleMobileDeviceSupport64.msi again.)

Does it install (or uninstall and then reinstall) properly for you? If so, does your device connect without that message now?

Drat. Are you able to extract a working msi using the 7-zip utility instead?

http://www.7-zip.org/

When dbl-click on AppleMobileDEviceSupport64.msi it launches the installation it crashes very quickly (reboot the PC).

Doublechecking ... we're getting a blue screen error during the AMDS install?

Good gracious. I can't recall seeing that with the recent versions this year. (That may be an artifact of my observations, though ... tt2 has been doing a lot of installation troubleshooting lately, and so I may have just been missing the threads in which the BSODs have been being reported.)

Working initially on the assumption that something rare and exotic is going on ... the first intuition would be a driver conflict. (AMDS installs the netaapl.sys and usbaapl.sys usb and ethernet drivers.)

So, it's be worth updating the drivers on your system. If you have any third party usb or network devices attached to the PC, make sure their drivers are up to date. Head also to the drivers and downloads page for your model of PC, and check to make sure you're not behind on any chipset and network-card-related driver updates. (And while there, just in case, also check to make sure your BIOS and video-card/display-adaptors are up to date.)

If you were behind on anything, and you update, are you able to do the AMDS install without the BSOD?

May I ask you what is the BSOD ?

Apologies. It's an Acronym for "Blue Screen of Death", which is the colloquial term for a STOP error message. (Generic term for any crash on a Windows based system where the screen goes blue and the computer restarts.)