Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Troubleshooting Apple ITunes Update on Microsoft Windows

ITunes update on my Windows 7 PC. It had to be a trivial task... at least in theory. The only thing to do was just double clicking on the newest version of ITunes installer I downloaded before and waiting until it finished its job. You know, sometimes the reality goes beyond any imagination.

During the installation I got this error and as a result the entire update aborted.

"There is a problem with this Windows Installer package. A program required for this install to complete could not be run. Contact your support personnel or package vendor".

Apple, aka the inventor of user friendliness, was telling me something cryptic: "a program required for this install to complete could not be run". Now, my first question was: which program? But no info was given about.

Dear Apple, sometimes I guess you deliver these riddles to Windows users in the hope to converting them to your platform, where everything is wonderful and these error messages do non exist just because all is working like a charm. Well... I like riddles.

So, after an entire week-end spent on it, I discovered the solution. Which program caused this error message? Apple Software Update. It was missing or not properly installed on my PC.

These are the steps to follow for solving the error and to install ITunes correctly.

From Add or remove programs panel uninstall these programs in this exact sequence.

  1. ITunes
  2. Apple Software Update (if not present, just skip this step)
  3. Apple Mobile Service Support
  4. Bonjour
  5. Apple Application Support (32 bit)
  6. Apple Application Support (64 bit)
Now install ITunes.

If the error still appears, open Add or remove programs panel. Right click on Apple Software Update (now it has to be present) and choose repair.

Run the ITunes installer again. Now it should complete with no errors.

Hope this help.