Reviews of iTunes for Windows

1. 
   Ryusennin

   Reviewing 9.0.2 (Oct 31, 2009)

   The one piece of bloat that anyone with a tiny bit of common sense loves to hate.
   
   First of all, there's this solid and open-source app called Songbird which, allied with growing music stores like 7digital, makes a decent alternative to Apple's universe-threatening monopoly.
   
   If, for whatever reason, you really can't live without iTunes, there's a way to get rid of all this QT/Bonjour/Adieu sh!t forced downed your throat at installation time, and that's called a custom installer. Do a bit of googlehomework and live again in (relative) peace.
2. 
   Lsavagejt

   Reviewing 9.0.2 (Oct 30, 2009)

   Well, let's see. The first thing I do is dump Bonjour and switch out QuickTime for QTLite, then kill the iPod service, then it's basically ready to go. Also I've learned that I can download any mp3 I want from Amazon, so no more iTunes store, and then that's basically it, (with every new update!)
   
   My only alternative would be to burn about 2 Gigs worth of tunes to CD in order to convert them all to mp3, and ditch this bozo for good. I'm not quite there yet.
3. 
   KayNine

   Reviewing 9.0.2 (Oct 30, 2009)

   Some people still don't get it... iTunes is MUCH more than an audio player let alone organizer!!
   
   Agreed, it's a big download, but what you get is WORTH it. The organizer is awesome and easy to usw, i.e. I tried MediaMonkey lots of times and everytime uninstalled it frustrated after a few hours, because I don't get it.
   
   Sure, classic iPods you can sync or manage with other tools, but I still prefer the ease of iTunes.
   
   The best thing about iTunes is the integrated store. I can't remember the last time I bought a physical CD, shopping with iTunes is simple, through recommendations I discovered lot's of artists I never would've found in the local store. Furthermore... why bother with audio CD media? Most players (car, sound system) can play AAC or at least MP3 nowadays. At home my CD player hasn't been used for months, it's so easy using a media server and streaming player (DNLA though, not iTunes).
   
   Please, be fair, don't just rate the size, relate it to the features you get, and it's no big deal anymore!!
   
   EDIT:
   By the way... for those recommending Zune instead... THAT download is 470MB(!!!!!) by now -- THAT's what I call bloat ;-)
   
   EDIT2:
   @Lsavagejt: "My only alternative would be to burn about 2 Gigs worth of tunes to CD in order to convert them all to mp3" - No need to do that (at least for newer tracks that are DRM-free), you can simply mark all AAC-tracks you want to convert, right-click and choose "Create MP3 version" (you have to set the import parameters in the preferences to MP3 and your prefered quality before, of course). Et voila, really simple.
4. 
   nugro

   Reviewing 9.0.2 (Oct 30, 2009)

   best way to brick your windows installation
5. 
   xsnred

   Reviewing 9.0.2 (Oct 29, 2009)

   Scroogle or Bing software that will upload mp3s to your Ipod directly. There is plenty out there. Pick a good one though.

Discuss iTunes for Windows

1. Apr 7, 2009 - 8:51 AM
   Reverb

   For those of you complaining of the bloat of Itunes and slow startup you obviously have never experienced Zune 3.0. Itunes runs like a speedy DOS app compared to that Monster!!!! I have a friend that has a Zune and the device itself is nice the software is garbage and sadly there are no 3rd party apps like sharepod that can be used with it. I personally won't buy any media player that requires an app to transfer media to it. I have 2 that you merely plug in and use explorer or whatever file manager you choose to transfer media to/from it.