I needed to download iTunes Quick Time to purchase a few songs I wanted and could not get elsewhere. I have hundreds of songs in my Windows Media Player and ususally use that to play my music. Now on occasion I open iTunes Player to access the few songs I have there. I was wondering if there is any way to transfer these songs I have in my iTunes player over to my Windows Media Player files?

As probably everyone knows, iTunes is quite bloated. I was also wondering if I download Quick Time Lite if I can transfer the songs I currently have in iTunes to Quick Time Lite and then uninstall Quick Time?

Thank for your time.

You can uninstall Quicktime AFTER iTunes has been installed, then install quicktime alternative which will cut down the install size. iTunes should work fine still unless they changed something to check for lack of official Quicktime.

Indeed, but do not have them both installed at the same time as they seemingly cancel each other out making both unusable.

I don't know about transferring your iTunes library to WMP since I don't use iTunes to verify it. I would expect WMP may not playback the iTunes files especially those purchased and protected with DRM.

DRM is why I use FLAC for archiving. And LAME MP3 for playback on everything which equals multi-OS support, multi-software support, and multi-hardware support without any restrictions.

I had to install iTunes a few weeks ago for my daughters iPod, and it wouldn't work with, or tolerate the presence of, Quick Time Alternative.

So I had to remove QTA and install the big fat real thing. Although, I've never tried uninstalling QT after installing iTunes, and then installing QTA. I'll have to try that.

razz, if your iTunes files are m4a, you can download and install a codec which enables you to play them in Windows Media Player. Trouble is, it aint free. It's shareware, and costs USD 6.95.

3ivx Codec:

Also available at it's home site:

I have all my daughters music in the iTunes folder backed-up on my D: drive, my partition. I can just drag and drop the folders into WMP. I downloaded and tried it, and they're playing away at this moment.

There may be a freeware alternative to this, I haven't had a good look around yet, but I will. This one is a 30 day trial, and also covers video.

I have purchased all I want to buy from iTunes. Like I said, I have hundreds of songs in Windows Media Player. My intention is to get these iTunes songs I have into WMP and then just uninstall iTunes and all the crap that came with it. Dennis, what exactly did you mean by "backed-up on my D: drive, my partition"? I guess I could just copy from iTunes to CD then copy back from CD to WMP - I guess that would work unless you can't copy iTunes because of the format.

Hi razz, the iTunes albums are kept in a folder here:

C:\Documents and Settings\<User Name>\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music

I just use Karens Replicator to back that folder up onto my partition in case anything happens on the System Drive. You could of course do it manually.

Karens Replicator:

I don't have a second drive, so I partitioned mine to use for backups and other stuff. You could back them up onto a second drive or even DVD's. iTunes Music is just a straightforward Music Folder.

To play them in Windows Media Player, you don't have to copy them anywhere. You could open Windows Media Player, then open the iTunes Music Folder in front of it, like this:



Then you just drag and drop the folders up to the left, into the Windows Media Player Library.

That wouldn't move the folders, it just registers them into WMP library so it knows where to find them. All you need is a codec that enables WMP to play that m4u format.

Edit: You can completely uninstall iTunes, and I mean completely, and the iTunes music folder remains in My Music. It isn't removed with the removal of iTunes. But regardless, it's wise to back it up if you have the space. It would be a lot to replace if anything happened to your system drive.

Just carried that out, and all seems fine. I expected an angry pop up in iTunes asking how dare I remove Quick Time, but not the case. Plays fine with QT Alternative with both music and video.

Excellent. Using Version 7.7.1.11

That's what I was wondering. You meant Quick Time Alternative, not Quick Time Lite (never heard of that.)

It's QT Lite that I've just installed.

Available here:

Mind you, I just installed an older Lite version I still had the Installer for, to see if it would work. I'm downloading this version now. The installer is about the same size as QT Alternative, but I'm not sure about the installed size.

QT Lite = QT Alternative without Media Player Classic

BTW you can install QT Lite first, then the iTunes compatibility add-on, then iTunes "lite".

iTunes Lite sounds interesting, but all the linked to links appear dead.