It wasn’t the LP albums or redesigned look that got me excited when Apple announced iTunes 9. Nope, it was the function called Home Sharing that touted the ability to share and copy media over a LAN easily. Sure, you could always drop all your music files into a centralized network share and rock out that way, but while that method works, it’s not elegant or easy for others to use.
The only problem is that Windows Home Server and the current version of iTunes 9 do not get along. It takes a little hacking to get the program installed right now, but hopefully the next release will install fine. Until then though, I got iTunes 9 to install on my WHS following some of the tips mentioned in this forum thread.
Warning: You will not be able to sync your iPod or iPhone directly to your WHS if you install iTunes 9 with this method because you have to remove the services needed for device control in order for it to install. But with Home Sharing, you can easily manage the content you want on another computer anyway. It will also cause a few pop-up error messages when your WHS starts up but it’s not like you restart your server everyday and, in my eyes, the benefits of Home Sharing outweighs the annoyance of the pop-ups.
Step one: Download iTunes
Head over here and download iTunes 9 to your WHS.
Step two: Download and install Orca
We’re going to use this program to edit the iTunes installer.
Step three: Download and install WinRAR
You probably already have WinRAR installed, but if not, it’s available here. Install it.
Step four: Extract the iTunes installer
- Right click on iTunesSetup.exe (the first file you download)
- Click “Extract To iTunesSetup\” to make a folder with all the contents of the installer
Step five: Edit iTunes.msi
- Open up Orca
- Open up the newly-created iTunes.msi file within Orca
- Select ServiceControl in the left column
- Select each one of the files within the ServiceControl table and hit the Delete key on the keyboard
- Save and close the file
Step six: Edit AppleMobileDeviceSupport.msi
- Open AppleMobileDeviceSupport.msi in Orca
- Select LaunchCondition from the left column
- Change the number 501 to 502 in the appropriate condition on the right.
- Save and close that file
Step seven: Install iTunes 9
- Double click on the modified iTunes.msi file. NOT on the original installer
- Click through the prompts to install as normal
- It might give you a Quicktime error, in which case you’ll have to go back and install Quicktime.msi afterwards
That’s it. It’s really not that bad of a hack. But once again, you will get errors relating to the iPod when your Windows Home Server restarts and you will not be able to sync your iDevice with the WHS. Uninstalling iTunes 9 does get rid of these messages so hopefully iTunes 9.0.1 will fix these issues. But until then, enjoy the Home Sharing function. It’s great.
If anyone has a better method, drop it in the comments below.
Have you looked at firefly media server? This is what I use on my WHS, and it works great on devices on my LAN. My laptops & desktops run itunes and play the files off my WHS.
http://wiki.wegotserved.com/index.php?title=Firefly_Media_Server_on_Windows_Home_Server
Yeah, but I like iTunes for desktop management. I use PlayOn and a TiVo for media sharing.
I like to stream movies from my WHS to my Apple TV via iTunes on WHS. Can I assume that the steps above will prevent the Apple TV from connecting to iTunes?
Nope, works just fine with AppleTV and WHS. I’m currently doing that using a HP MediaSmart Server Ex485.
I always get error code 2229 when trying to install itunes. can someone help?
Drop the whole Table “LaunchCondition” in AppleMobileDeviceSupport.msi
It works! Thank you!
I went through this last night on my 1st gen WHS. works great, tho itunes has to be be running on whs.
My question is though, how do I add new media to the library, specifically from a laptop with itunes running on it? note – that laptop can see the WHS itunes library under shared. do I just drag and drop new media into it?
thanks for help in advance.
Thanks for the how-to! I don’t get why iTunes has to ALWAYS be running for home sharing, but that looks like an Apple problem. It seems like they could have implemented this feature to run as a service on a PC when iTunes is closed, but what do I know?
Again, THANKS! Works great :)
@TopToad – The next time Apple does something PC-specific, like give us the ability to install iTunes as a service, it will be the first time.
Glad you got it to work though :)
Great stuff. Just what I needed in my hybrid home network. Thanks!
This sucks, I want to manage my ipod from WHS. itunes is pretty much useless w/o that.
I have upgraded to itunes 9 and the changes have been great except that the ‘Latino’ Genre has been removed from the options in Radio. I love listening to Salsa and if i had any idea that this would happen (I think this is a down grade) I would have opted to stay with the older version.
Thanks!! Worked perfectly for me.
Does anyone know what to do with itunes 9.01 now?
I’ve resisted performing the update as I assume that I would have to do the above hack again as a fresh install? Is that correct or will it just overwrite the neccesary files. Has anyone succesfully upgraded to 9.01 on a Windows home server?
Thanks
Did you ever find an answer if you areable to update to 9.01 or do you have to reapply the hack?
I get an error with the MobleME install, so the whole iTunes install stops dead in its tracks. Any way to not have it try to install MobleMe and complete the iTunes install?
Can someone give me a link to the hacked intaller?
This is awesome! Thanks for posting this.
Thankyou. my internett is on 700 bytes per second but im writing this comment anyway. It will post 11 hours after i write this. :) Thabnks
Does anyone know if this will work on a HP MediaSmart Server LX195. Newegg has them on sale for 199 and this would be perfect for having a centralized storage space for my wife and my itunes library.
Trying to use this method to install iTunes 9.0.2 on WHS (HP MediaSmart EX485), but as soon as the installer gets past the prompt to install shortcuts on desktop or not, it immediately says “the installer encountered errors” and exits. Any ideas?
Ah, looks like I found my problem. I had copied the individual installer files from the Apple Software Update folder to another folder. I missed copying the SetupAdmin.exe file. Seems to be working now that’s in place too.