Nope, not in my experience with a brand new 7 install, dual-core and 3gb of ram... I know people who think that computers run on magic and even then only on a Tuesday, and even they don't use WMP

When you think about it, it used to be so bad that people actually used Realplayer

I don't use that either, so I wouldn't know! I prefer my mp3 players to work without the assistance of bloatware. Windows Explorer works fine for "syncing" or drag and drop file transfer, as I like to call it

Another thing I should mention..

I could not sync my iphone with my PC at all when I was using Kaspersky Internet Security - I used a spare laptop just for itunes, and even then it was hit and miss (the aforementioned 5 or 6 attempts to connect the phone).

When my KIS licence expired I put itunes back on my main PC, and shortly afterwards an updated itunes install cured most of the connection issues. I agree with bobbdobbs and okenobi that, as a media application, itunes is a pile of poo; but it is at least now a functioning pile of poo.

Not to worry, my warranty expires in a couple of weeks so I'm going to jailbreak it and try some alternatives.

I'll start a thread for opinions and suggestions on what to try, rather than hijacking this one any further.

Perhaps it's Apple's cack-handed way of suggesting Windows users should get a Mac! I've never had any issues with iTunes on its mother platform.

Oh, and the other thing, about not liking something taking over handling the filing? Isn't that what computers are for? I'd much rather let the pooter handle filing thousands of music and video files, and photos. I used to manually sort images from my DSLR when I first got it, but soon realised I'd never find anything in the folder structure ever again. Using a management application like iPhoto or Aperture or Lightroom takes a whole level of befuddlement out of life. Let the computer do the graft, and let you get on and enjoy your media in peace, I say.

It has the opposite reaction for me.

Hence my comment about it being cack-handed.

In all fairness, non of the windows + iPhone users I personally know have any issues with iTunes either.

Mark

We ought to start a new thread on the topic, but humour me.

Do you know if these people try to manage their media content themselves, or whether they let iTunes just do it? I have a thought that deciding to manage your own stuff is perhaps the root cause of the problems people report.

I'm starting to head that way, as I have a fair mix of formats (MP3, AAC and FLAC), and I need iTunes to sync with the phone, but it doesn't handle FLAC files at all, so I have something else for that.

The one bugbear I have with iTunes (and Norton as well) is that it does cause this issue to happen quite frequently, probabley3-4 calls I get per week are simply running through this:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314060/en-us

After valiantly attempting to manage my media (music, podcasts, audiobooks) I gave in, hoping that letting itunes do its stuff would help but nope its still a slow over bloated pile of poo.

I guess the Mac version has recourse to a lot of underlying OS stuff that the Windows version has to add extra.

I was playing with iTunes on my friends Celeron lappy under Win7 this time last week.
Felt fine. Clearly though, YMMustV.

Perhaps it's like all things Mac? Do as you're told and it "just works". Try to do something else and it doesn't like it/won't let you.

I have nothing against Macs per se and if I had one, an iPhone would be a far more interesting proposition for me, but I've been involved in too many disasters with Windows iTunes to do it without a Mac. Also, I like to organise my own media. I don't need software to do it for me. Also, I have at least 50% FLACs, so I'm incompatible with Jobsworld anyway.

On the phone front, saw a mate of mine today who is the manager of a local CPW. Had a play with the 4 and a Galaxy S. The 4 was ever so slightly more responsive and the UI seemed to be slightly more intuitive. For the average man on the street, I can see why the 4 sells by the bucket load. But the usability differences were only slight and the stuff the Sammy can do (playing FLACs being one of them, having a better DAC being another) warrants further time to get to know it. In a world where nobody seemingly has any time and relys on tech to do everything yesterday, you can completely understand why iOS is a de facto choice for so many consumers. I think this year may be interesting in terms of Android development and if they can address the slight friendliness issues, they have a potentially superior product. Of course, that often means nothing...

That probably sums it up neatly; norms (e.g. folks with no clue what a FLAC or a DAC is) just want stuff that works, techies and tinkerers want stuff that works the way they want it to work; as I say, we've had no problems with iTunes on Windows, but then we're just happy to accept the defaults and let it get on with it <shrug>

Cheers for all the comments.

Pete

I am assuming the "just works" mantra has the usual caveat with respects to normal programming [LIFTED] ups as by going by the support posts and issues people have its not a perfect "just works" or theres a hidden "well sometimes but not allways but anyway that phrase is put out by our all powerful PR/marketing division and we are just lowley programmers so dont blame us, we just want to get paid like everyone else"