Apple re-releases iTunes 8 to fix Vista 'blue screen of death'

September 12, 2008 (Computerworld) Apple Inc. late yesterday re-released iTunes 8 for Windows to roll back a buggy driver that had been bricking Windows Vista PCs with dreaded "blue screen of death" crashes since Tuesday.

In a support document posted around 8:30 p.m. EDT on Thursday, Apple urged Vista users who had been unable to synchronize their iPods or iPhones using iTunes 8 to uninstall both iTunes and an Apple-provided device driver, then download and reinstall the entire 75MB package yet again.

From Vista's "Uninstall a Program" control panel, users should ditch the "Apple Mobile Device Support" driver as well as iTunes itself, then restart the PC. "Re-download and install the updated iTunes 8 installer from www.apple.com/itunes/download," said Apple. "Do not use the iTunes8Setup or iTunes864Setup file you previously downloaded."

Users running Microsoft Corp.'s Vista operating system had reported problems almost as soon as the updated iTunes 8 was posted for download Tuesday. According to scores of users on the Apple support forum, plugging in an iPod or iPhone caused Vista to crash, then display the "blue screen of death" (BSOD), a Windows critical error screen best known for its blue background.