I’ve been testing Windows Vista for work since we got our MSDN key a few weeks ago. So far, the RTM version of Vista seems more stable, and much less annoying, than the release candidates. I still have one big problem: iTunes still has problems.
This is the same problem I wrote about in September. My problem is that iTunes will fail to redraw itself properly after a few minutes of use. For instance, when I was browsing around my music library to make my Life Soundtrack, iTunes would just redraw the track lists on top of each other, making the track lists entirely unreadable.
I like to leave iTunes open on my desktop computer so that I can share my library with other computers on my home network. I will usually minimize iTunes to get it out of the way. When I try to restore the iTunes window, iTunes is as the active application, but the window will never appear. Sometimes iTunes will accept keyboard commands, so I can close it using Alt + F4 or Alt + F, X. At other times I need to use Task Manager to close iTunes. It appears that the application is otherwise running properly, as I can play tracks from my shared library even when I can’t get iTunes to show up on my desktop.
I am not sure if the source of the problem is Apple’s inability properly program for Vista, or if Aero has problems drawing the iTunes interface, or if my video card is an issue. I even wonder if the Cover Flow feature is at all to blame, since it significantly increases the graphics requirements of iTunes. Whatever the problem is, I hope it gets resolved soon. Vista will soon be the default operating system installed on new computers, and iTunes will surely be installed to support the many iPods in the market.
Hi there - I have exactly this issue too - on Vista Ultimate RTM x64. It always happens sooner or later, usually just enough to get a playlist done, or ipod sync done.
In addition when I plug my shuffle in to sync I frequently hit 100% CPU for the period until the iPod is removed.
Finally an attempt to upgrade the firmware on the iPod failed, so I had to update under XP.
So pretty rough, and it’s the only “normal” application to have such problems - everything else works very well, except where drivers or shell extensions are not available in 64 bit.