Unwanted Services when installing iTunes (for SHAME, Apple!)

Published 24 March 8 10:22 AM | Charlie Russel

OK, we've all complained about unnecessary services and silent installs, but to give them credit, Microsoft has done a pretty good job of cutting back on that sort of thing. Heck, they even allow installing a server without a GUI, finally. So I recently broke down and bought an iPod. I had a Zune, and it was pretty lame, but when the new software (v2.x) got installed, it became totally useless. Time to break down and buy an iPod - at least it also supports Audible books, which is a big plus for me. So, I get a nice little iPod Nano, 2nd generation. 2 GB is enough for me, and I can even swim with it thanks to H2O Audio. But ever since I installed the mandatory iTunes, which also installs the horrible QuickTime, my system has been slow to start up and a bit odd behaving. So, I started investigating. First to go was killing the QuickTime startup. I don't want it, don't need it, and don't want it. Plus, it kept phoning home to see if it could update or sell me an "improved" version. No thanks!

But that wasn't enough, apparently, since it was still slow starting up. And now I noticed a new service running "Bonjour Service". I NEVER installed or asked for anything called Bonjour, and it won't uninstall from add/remote programs. Grrr. Ah, I see, it's a service. And it's got some DNS sniffing software it runs. NOT nice, definitely NOT something that should be running on my network. So, I disabled the service, rebooted, and uninstalled and then ripped the registry to remove every trace of it. And you know what? My iPod still works just fine, and the Apple iTunes doesn't even complain. So, why install it? I don't know, but I'm NOT a happy camper. Anyone know a way to get software onto an iPod without having to use iTunes?

Charlie.

Update: Barb Bowman suggested I look at Anapod, from Red Chair Software. Looked interesting, and even claimed to do Audible support (though there are indications that it only does Audible Type4, which is a nuisance.) So I downloaded the trial software, installed it, and found out it's a BRAIN DEAD 32-bit only application that doesn't work with 64-bit Windows. Uninstalled. Filed in /dev/null. When, oh when, will folks figure this out?

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Comments

# Brian said on March 25, 2008 12:09 PM:

I haven't checked, but you might find that some of the media sharing features of iTunes require the Bonjour service. There is some info at en.wikipedia.org/.../Bonjour_(software)

# Charlie Russel said on March 25, 2008 12:16 PM:

I neither asked for, nor was notified of those services during install. THAT's WRONG. And, let me be abundantly clear - I don't WANT them.

# Vitalijus said on April 17, 2008 9:43 AM:

Well, you can use Winamp, it fully supports ipod.