PC Help: Quicktime taking over

Q I recently installed both iTunes and Quicktime because I wanted to download two podcasts that aren’t available elsewhere.

That worked fine and it was easy to use but Quicktime (which is required by iTunes) caused problems by taking over the playback of audio files on my PC.

When I clicked in my Firefox browser to download this file to my computer Quicktime played it instead, within Firefox, and I wasn’t able to download it.

I changed the settings of the Quicktime plug-in to tell it not to open audio but it failed. I have since uninstalled Quicktime and successfully downloaded the file, but now iTunes doesn’t work because it requires Quicktime.

Daniel Flynn

A As you’ve noticed, iTunes won’t work if you uninstall Quicktime. However, it’s possible to tell Quicktime, when you reinstall it, not to play audio or video files by default.

Near the end of the installation process, you’ll be asked whether you want Quicktime to play audio and video files. The box is ticked already – untick it and Quicktime won’t bother you again. If you’ve already reinstalled it and it’s up to its old tricks, you can tell Firefox not to use it.

To do so, click the Tools menu in Firefox and select Options. Click the Content button (a globe icon) at the top of the box that appears and click the Manage button. A new dialogue box will appear with a list of files.

If the file you’re downloading is an MP3, scroll down to MP3 (or type MP3 into the search box) and highlight it, then click Change Action. In the next box, click ‘Save them on my computer’ and click OK. Then click Close, then OK. Now when you click an MP3 link Firefox will automatically save it rather than opening it.

You can, of course, go back in and do the same for other kinds of files.

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