iTunes 12 incompatible with Windows Vista Data Execution Prevention

My original reply described 2 effective solutions for suppressing the DEP popup generated during the iTunes program close...

1) Disable WER or 2) Disable DEP. Neither of which is a big deal.

WER just collects and sends crash data to Microsoft, all future crash data is still in located in the Windows event logs. And given the prevalence of malware I've seen infecting Vista machines, DEP appears to be easily bypassed in it's default configuration, namely the essential programs and services (Opt-In) mode.

The only people who can truly "fix" this problem are the iTunes developers. My guess is Apple isn't going to spend a whole lot of resources fixing this minor annoyance since a) it currently seems to only affect Windows Vista (less than 3% of the desktop market share) and b) doesn't appear to affect the program's database integrity i.e. no data corruption. If it was affecting Windows 7 or corrupting your iTunes files they'd probably release an update tomorrow.

But perhaps Apple will look into this soon. Have you tried contacting Apple directly to report the problem?

As to using an old iTunes version (11.x) you can certainly go this route... with older iDevices. However it won't work with newer iDevices and iOS versions. So at some point Vista users will need to upgrade to version 12.x which will bring back the dreaded DEP popups on iTunes close.

To the person who asked if I had a Vista system... yes it is a freshly loaded, fully patched (December 2014) Windows Vista SP2 x64 laptop as previously mentioned.

And finally, the let "us" know if this resolved your error, simply referred to the rest of the internet community viewing this thread.

I hope this clears things up.

Happy New Year.

I have been getting a "Vista Data
Execution Prevention" error message whenever I closed iTunes for months
now, and after reading through a few forums, I have found a solution
that worked for me. Takes only two minutes. Long story short:

1) Start iTunes

2) Open the Windows Task Manager

3) Go to the "Proccess" Tab

4) Find "AppleMobileDeviceHelper.exe *32" and right click on it.

5) Select "Properties" from the drop down menu

6) Go to the "Compatibility" Tab

7) Check the Box next to "Run this program in compatibility mode for:"

8) If "Windows XP (Service Pack 2)" is not in the field below, click on the down arrow and select said option.

9) Click on "OK" to close the window.

10) Close the iTunes application

11) Reopen the iTunes application

12) Close the iTunes application again.

At this point you should not see anymore "Vista Data Execution Prevention" error messages when you close iTunes!

P.S.
If you want to go back and de-select running
"AppleMobileDeviceHelper.exe *32" in Windows XP Compatibility mode, you
can. Though this part is totally optional. The next time you close
iTunes, you will get one last "Vista Data Execution Prevention" error
message, but don't worry, it will be the last one. Try opening iTunes
again and then closing it, and TaDa, no more error messages. I don't
know why running AppleMobileDeviceHelper.exe *32 in compatibility mode
JUST ONCE solves the problem, but it worked for me.

Happy new year \o/

That sounds really promising. Hopefully others can confirm that it works for them too.

tt2

Looking for a solution to the DEP issue and found this thread. I just tried Newtonsapples' solution and it did not work for me.

Still seeing the DEP error and seeing the iTunes crash in the Event Viewer:

Faulting application iTunes.exe, version 12.0.1.26, time stamp 0x543e558b, faulting module unknown, version 0.0.0.0, time stamp 0x00000000, exception code 0xc0000005, fault offset 0x6e657272, process id 0xb94, application start time 0x01d02938b226a990.

Windows Vista SP2 32 bit

I did try the suggestion by Newtonsapple of changing the "AppleMobileDeviceHelper.exe" to run in compatibility mode for Windows XP (Service Pack 2) and it did work for me though I am not sure why nor am I sure if it will continue to do so. So far so good though with no annoying DEP pop-up appearing after closing iTunes 12.1. Myself, I would have preferred that Apple actually come out with a solution to this annoyance that has been going on despite many updates since spring 2014! When the views for this thread is in the thousands, there is obviously a problem that so far Apple has been either incapable of fixing for Vista users (and please don't just suggest that we get rid of Vista!!) or unwilling to address.

Whoops!! The DEP pop-up message did come back after testing it a few more times even with the "AppleMobileDeviceHelper.exe" set to run in compatibility mode for Windows XP(Service Pack 2) that I was hopeful had solved the issue. I am not sure why it worked a few times successfully but it was not a lasting solution so I have reset the properties and unchecked the compatibility setting suggested by Newtonsapple.

Anything that be set using the group policy editor can be modified by patching the registry, but you have to know which keys you want to play with. Offhand I don't know how you would locate the one causing your limitation. Try http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=25250 if you really want to dive in. Several years ago I built some Windows XP lockdown .reg files for some PCs that weren't on a domain, but whatever I learned then has evaporated through lack of use.

tt2