Installing iTunes as light as possible

iTunes is a beast. It does a lot of things- but sometimes you just want a music player.

On my work box I wanted to install iTunes as light as possible.

The first step is to download install file from Apple. Save it to a known location.

Use a program like 7-Zip to unpack the downloaded EXE. It will contain more than half a dozen sub-installers.

Copy the following installers to a different directory:

  • AppleApplicationSupport.msi
  • QuickTime.msi
  • iTunes.msi (or iTunes64.msi) if you are using the 64 bit version
  • Start a command prompt and change to the directory where those three installers are.

    Run the installers in the above order this way:

  • msiexec /i AppleApplicationSupport.msi /passive
  • msiexec /i QuickTime.msi /passive
  • msiexec /i iTunes64.msi /passive
  • The installers will put a QuickTime and an iTunes shortcut on your desktop. Unfortunately, there is no way that I have found to run iTunes without QuickTime.

    The first time you run iTunes it will complain about not having Bonjour and being able to share music. I think this is a good thing in the work environment. It will not complain after that.

    There you go, an install of iTunes that is as light as possible. I can download podcasts, add music to my library, and create play lists.