Windows Installer CleanUp Utility
Trying to update iTunes today, and it was moaning it can’t find itunes64.msi in /Local/Temp/IX0001SA/ or something like that. As a result, I couldn’t remove iTunes, update iTunes, repair iTunes just because that file was missing. Lovely.
Trawl through the internet for assistance, Windows Installer CleanUp Utility. This program doesn’t just remove the program from the list of programs installed, it removes the Windows Installer information with it. Once that information has gone, just install iTunes again, and everyone’s happy.
If only iTunes would work now….
iTunesSnarl: Display what you’re listening to on iTunes
It’s the functionality that you had on WinAmp, which I liked very much, and somewhat similar to WMP (before Windows 7 removed the taskbar), iTunes, has none. OK you could hover over the iTunes tray icon (if you enabled it, but even if it was you’d have to unhide it because you don’t touch it).
I’ve seen various plug-ins trying to enable this behaviour, but none works as well as iTunesSnarl, which is just fantastic.
(Links to the software below)
First off, you need Snarl, a program which is the Windows equivalent to Growl for Mac (there is Growl for Windows, but it’s not as good). Easy to install, admittingly the Snarl control panel is a bit daunting and could be better, but it’s not that bad.
Secondly, iTunesSnarl, which is linked on the snarl website. Just set it up, install it (making sure iTunes is off), and job done. Don’t need to configure anything else on iTunes or Snarl, it just does it. Start iTunes, start playing, and you get notified of what is playing. Superb.
One thing iTunesSnarl does better than say the iTunes Growl plugin (windows or mac) or some others I’ve seen, is that if you flick through tracks, it doesn’t litter your screen with songs that have passed. iTunesSnarl just keeps it on the one notification, which is what really makes it stand out.
Highly recommend this. Of course, you can get Snarl to work with other media players such as Spotify, last.fm, SongBird, and more. http://www.fullphat.net/applications/mediaPlayer/index.html has the ones available. Not just media players, there’s volume display, battery notifications, time, and others.
Link to Snarl : http://www.fullphat.net/index.php
Link to iTunesSnarl: http://earlybirdapplications.com/products/3-iTunesSnarl