QuickTime stealing file associations
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Didn't we already get tired of this, like 5 years ago?
Got QuickTime? Got IE? Right. Go here: http://www.w3.org/Graphics/PNG/inline-alpha.html. You should see something like:
Ok. Now go here: http://www.w3.org/Graphics/PNG/alphatest.png. It's the URL of the image shown above. Chances are, you'll probably see:
Doesn't quite look the same, does it? We appear to have lost some transparency. Let's try right clicking on it:
Ah. QuickTime.
Come to think of it, I did just upgrade iTunes the other day. In fact, I remember very deliberately clicking to not associate file types. And indeed, if I look closely in the registry, my .png file associations are untouched (and double clicking a file opens into Windows Photo Gallery). If I look in Vista's rather nice new file association window, I see that it doesn't allow me to reassign my .png associations back to IE, or even to QuickTime! According to this UI, QuickTime shouldn't be handling .png files.
And yet, it is. It's handling the image/png MIME type - by installing an Internet Explorer plugin. (It'd be nice if the Vista file association UI could in future be extended to include MIME associations.)
A quick spelunk through the HKCR\MIME\Database\Content Type tree of the database reveals quite a few instances of {4063BE15-3B08-470D-A0D5-B37161CFFD69} - the QuickTime plugin. I certainly didn't ask for these to be associated.
Fortunately, there's a quick fix - fire up the QuickTime control panel applet, get to the Browser tab and hit "MIME settings". You can now choose which MIME types you want the QuickTime plugin to handle (there are a bunch that Windows can't handle out of the box).
But you know what? I'd already done this last time I updated iTunes. And still it stole them back again. And what's more, going into the control panel app, it played innocent and claimed that these MIME types weren't associated with QuickTime! A quick toggle of a setting on and off and an apply later, and all is well with the world again:
So what's worse? That Apple don't honour MIME types as well as they do file associations or that they ignore your settings and install something that doesn't work as well as the native implementation?
Comments:
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RE: QuickTime stealing file associations
posted by
Miszou
on
9/8/2007 7:42:32 AM
:
You have no idea how much this BS irks me...
iTunes itself is a travesty of user interface design. They must have made a special effort to disable the ability to resize the window from any corner! Ah, but it looks like the Mac, so it must be good right?
I have spent (and am still working on it) an entire Friday night trying to fix this worthless piece of garbage. It even broke Winamp, so that I couldn't use Winamp to play MP3's - I had to reinstall that too!
iTunes is bloated, slow and unintuitive. Quicktime is worthless, but iTunes won't run without it. Even as I try typing this, iTunes keeps popping to the foreground, for no good reason.
A pox on Apple and a plague on QuickTime.
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RE: QuickTime stealing file associations
posted by
Ian
on
9/10/2007 4:17:24 PM
:
I have experienced this annoying problem too. It is made worse by Vista, which seems unable to give the MIME settings in the Control Panel. Can anyone offer suggestions on this? It is also unacceptable for Quicktime to hijack MIME types without asking the user. It is a pity that Vista, with all its supposed new security features, cannot stop Quicktime from doing this.
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RE: QuickTime stealing file associations
posted by
Tim
on
3/19/2008 3:09:05 AM
:
Just want to add my note of disgust about programs like Quicktime that steal file associations. I've refused to take the jump to Vista since it's too bloated and XP is serving me fine. I updated Quicktime to ver. 7.4.1 yesterday due to a security scan showing my older version having a security vulnerability. The update stole a lot of my previous MIME associations even though I went through the process of deselecting any file association that could be handled by another existing program. If my MIME association reset doesn't stick, I'm just going to unload the intruder that Quicktime has become.
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RE: QuickTime stealing file associations
posted by
Sudsak
on
3/31/2008 5:38:26 AM
:
I just had a discussion about this with a guy on Apple's forums who kept defending QT like it was the greatest thing in the world!
http://tinyurl.com/34c8dn
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RE: QuickTime stealing file associations
posted by
dpk
on
6/10/2008 11:38:28 PM
:
I am similarly annoyed by QuickTime. I want it to play Quicktime movies embedded or streamed on the web, and NOTHING else. In particular, I want it to leave my file associations of *.mov *.mpg etc alone. It doesn't. And, interestingly, in the QuickTime control panel, one CANNOT turn off the association between QuickTime and "QuickTime movie files". WHY NOT?
Similarly annoying, btw, is RealPlayer.
... and for a long time I thought the Microsoft player was the worst thing that could happen to me ...
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RE: QuickTime stealing file associations
posted by
Antago
on
6/11/2008 9:54:08 PM
:
I fucking hate quicktime doing this, They've done it since the beginning of time. It's completely inefficient as well and slows the browser down just to view a fucking png file in my browser. IT MAKES NO SENSE.
Yay, let's open Internet explorer, then a png separately, and THEN fire up another fucking, especially slow program on top of it.
Meanwhile where do I find the quicktime control panel? Thanks! This is a very helpful post. I am so glad you posted it, I am tired of quicktime running the show
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found it!
posted by
Antago
on
6/11/2008 9:56:07 PM
:
phew okay ! I found the control panel. I must right-click a file being viewed through quicktime in the browser then go to plug-in settings.
got it, thanks again!!!
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FUCKING HATE ITUNES
posted by
Mr Green
on
7/23/2008 4:25:22 AM
:
Ok. I am not the type of person who goes around the internet and says stuff.
BUT I NEED TO GET IT OFF MY CHEST. FUCK!! as I was writing, itunes popped back up and started playing FUCKING hate it
anyhow, I updated this piece of shit (just to sync my ipod is why i use this crap) and now all my file associations are gone. I redid it in windows media player, but after restarting itunes, it all went back . FUCKKK I HATE YOU!
And its not as though I can just stick to itunes. the piece of horse shit can't play it without pausing every couple of seconds and skipping pieace of shit fucking piece of crap. fuck. what the fuck is the deal with this piece of shit i fucking hate Apple.