apple + windows fail

By basd on Apr 25, 2010 | In -arghhh!!

My wife has an iTouch. She likes the iTouch. She wanted some photos on the iTouch.

I could not find a quick linux interface to the iTouch. There may or may not be one. So, I logged into my Windows Vista install, which is entirely up-to-date but I rarely use it.

So, well, I guess it wasn't entirely up-to-date, because then I had to wait for the latest 12 updates to install & then reboot.

So, I got ITunes installer and tried to install. No way. Windows Installer fail. Research, research. Microsoft support download, standalone 4.5 Windows Installer. Won't install, wrong version. (I guess it's for SP1 or earlier.) Try the Windows Installer clean-up tool. Won't install. Wait, isn't that circular? Installer won't work >the fix is the Installer clean up tool > the clean up tool won't install because the Installer won't work >. Nevermind.

Research, Research Research. [Almost] tried PC Medkit. PC Medkit claims there are 7,000+ errors in my Vista install. This exceeds my credibility threshold. Did not click on "Fix". Research, research. Oh, PC Medkit tech admits that a recent patch cause "a small number" of computers to no longer BOOT!!! Oh, you can use the recovery disk (right ... this is a netbook) or you can, um, reformat and reinstall.

Yikes! Let's uninstall that PC Medkit ASAP!!! (Whew.)

Research, research, research. Reinstall Windows Installer? Re-register Windows installer? Nothing works?

Found a batch file that someone wrote that implements the recommended multi-step Microsoft support process for reinstalling Windows Installer. Ran it. Seemingly nothing happened.

[four hours later]

Ran this command: msiexec /regserver.

I think that's what I did. One might want to run msiexec /unregister first.

I don't know. This is insane. No, it is Microsoft! Yes, I know, I have reported a fair amount of aggravation with my KDE 4 install(s), but this is ridiculous.

Anyway, installer cleanup tool installs, but not that it seems to have any useful resources for me. ITunes 9.1 installs. Photos install to ITouch (bit of a mystery at first, have to use a tab on the ITouch menu in ITunes after ITouch connects).

Photos on ITouch. Wife happy.

Arrrghh, arrrghhh, arrrghh. Can I get something useful done now?