[Tech Support] iTunes + WinXP SP2

Doh. I upgraded to WinXP SP2, simply because I was tired of unchecking it on my windows update refreshes. I figured that it has been out long enough that the bugs have been identified and most of the ISVs had patches to fix issues with SP2 (mainly the AV vendors). So I updated and I knew a few of my ancient programs would not work, but since I no longer used them I didn't care.

Then I went to install iTunes. I like iTune's interface and it is a quality mp3 player. I don't have an iPod, I merely wanted to use it instead of winamp (which is still one of my favorite mp3 players). But what iTunes has that winamp does not have is the ability to see you whole library and easily manipulate it.

I found out the hard way that WinXP SP2 and iTunes do not work together. It errors on install with a message about 'GEARAspiWDM.sys'. I found some help in this forum thread. My solution was to follow the suggestion of when you get the error dialog box, go out to \Program Files\iTunes and rename it to something else, then click on the error message. Once it errors out, I went and created a shortcut to the itunes.exe and now I can use iTunes, however it errors on every start up about not being able to burn CDs, which is ok since I wanted to use it as a mp3 player.

I hope Apple fixes this. I really like iTunes.