How to reinstall iTunes 11 to Windows Vista?

Hello Aggiequack, I am also a Vista user who dislikes iTunes 12, which has been around longer than you seem to think (12.0.1 was released in October 2014). Your idea is commendable, but there are potential obstacles. First, do you own any Apple mobile devices (iPad, iPhone, etc.)? I'm afraid the only iTunes version that can be installed on Vista and is also able to support iOS 9 devices is 12.1.3. Even devices running iOS 8 require iTunes 11.4 or higher, whereas the last iTunes version that was problem-free on Vista was 11.1.5 (see Windows Vista problem reports after latest Itunes 11.2 update).

Even if you don't have any Apple gadgets to support, you will face the obstacle that your current iTunes Library.itl file (located in your Music\iTunes folder) was created with a newer version of iTunes and is therefore incompatible with much older iTunes versions. That obstacle can be surmounted, but I'm rusty on the procedure, since I learned by the middle of 2014 to always keep an itl backup suitable for 11.1.5 before trying any of the crashy iTunes 12 versions. This link should prove helpful (and turingtest2 could probably explain better than I can): Re: what happened to my playlists? I just loaded version 11.0.4.4 and all my playlists and songs uploaded from CDs to iTunes disapeared!!!!

If you want to proceed despite the above, then you must first uninstall your current iTunes - and I strongly suggest that you follow the steps outlined by turingtest2 in http://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6562#reinstall. Then download iTunes 11.1.5 for Windows 32-bit. If your Vista is 64 bit, turingtest2 once posted a direct download link here: Re: iTunes 12 incompatible with Windows Vista Data Execution Prevention. Be sure to right-click and run as administrator. It's getting late, but I'll be back tomorrow if necessary.

Good luck!

Click herefor a list of current/previous iTunes versions with links to installers. The latest (and almost certainly last) version of iTunes to support Windows Vista is 12.1.3 - this is an out-of-sequence release (Sept. 2015) that added support for iOS 9 devices but lacks Apple Music and other functions included in iTunes 12.2 and 12.3. For full compatibility with Vista you'll need to track down an installer for 11.1.5, since all versions subsequent to that have a bug that generates Data Execution Prevention (DEP) errors on exit.

This morning I decided to practice what I preach. I completely uninstalled iTunes (12.1.3 in my case, but the specific version shouldn't matter) following the steps outlined by turingtest2 in a link given above. (I should mention that I went even further, deleting Apple folders in Appdata and ProgramData and even cleaning out the registry keys; but these additional steps are probably not essential.)

In my Music\iTunes folder, I moved the file iTunes Library.itl to the Previous iTunes Libraries folder and renamed it so I could tell what version it was created with. Of course if Previous iTunes Libraries contains a fairly complete backup created with 11.1.5 (probably modified in May or June of 2014 in most cases), then one could move that out and rename it iTunes Library.itl. I do have just such a backup file, but most Vista users probably do not; so I did not move and rename my backup this time. BTW I deleted the following files that I have no known need for: iTunes Library Extras, iTunes Library Genius, and iTunes Music Library.xml. Obviously you should not delete your iTunes Media folder, and I also retained my Album Artwork folder (having seen reports that album art doesn't always download properly these days).

Then I installed iTunes 11.1.5 (32 bit in my case) by right-clicking iTunesSetup.exe and running as administrator. I deselected "Automatically Update iTunes and other Apple software" before clicking Install. Nevertheless, the first thing I saw when I opened iTunes after installation was this pop-up:

That's funny, because the latest version that can be installed on Vista is actually 12.1.3; but at least it didn't offer me 12.3.2, which does not support Vista. So I checked "Do not ask me again" and clicked Don't Download. (Remember that blue iTunes icon?)

As for restoring my iTunes library, it probably would have been sufficient to click "Scan for media" on the opening page. But personally, I prefer not to put all of my media in the iTunes library (e.g. WAV files that have no tags, when I have MP3 files of the same music that do have tags). So I clicked the little box in the upper-left corner of the iTunes window and selected "Show Menu Bar." Then I clicked File > Add Folder to Library, browsed to my Music\iTunes\iTunes Media folder and selected it. Presto! I had an iTunes library again! In my case, the iTunes Media folder only contains files purchased from the iTunes store; so I had to repeat the procedure for other folders containing MP3 files. Only then did I log in at iTunes store to make sure that 11.1.5 can still do so (which it can). BTW 11.1.5 lacks a number of security patches, which is one good reason to browse over to Amazon and purchase MP3 files (wider compatibility being another). Good luck!