For those of you running Vista 64 (or XP Pro 64), you may have encountered the error message iTunes was not properly installed when opening iTunes. The message is followed with another stating that you wont be able to burn CDs until you re-install iTunes.

I’ve had the message pop-up since upgrading iTunes about 3 versions ago. It has proved to be very annoying, as it forces you to click OK prior to iTunes loading. Re-installing iTunes didn’t resolve the problem though - so I turned to Google.

Apparently I’m not the only one encountering this problem with iTunes - as the Apple forums show.

The fix for this issue is simply to install a Driver Update for GEARs. I hadn’t heard of GEAR Software until this evening, but it appears that many larger software manufacturers license GEARs in some form.

So, that’s that problem out of the way - iTunes starts with no error messages of any form. However, Anneka and I have both experienced problems with our iPods and iTunes. The other night I had to reset both iPods in order for them to work with iTunes - without causing the program to crash upon start-up. But it appears the library that we both share, has become too big or corrupted - as it constantly crashes when trying to add any more albums to it.

It looks like I’ll have to start again and import the music from the XML file.

Apple may well have the upper hand when it comes to designing products, but their software is becoming bloated and slow. If only there was a decent alternative to iTunes, that supported iPods; the iTunes store (with podcasts) and had the library management features.