As we reported last week, Windows users have been urged by Trend Micro to remove Apple Quicktime from their PCs. The video player — which Apple has ceased supporting — has been linked to two critical security flaws that won’t be getting patched, ever. If you haven’t got around to killing the program, you need to do it now.
Just because you don’t use Quicktime doesn’t mean it isn’t lurking on your PC’s hard drive. It used to be included in the iTunes installer, which means you might have downloaded it by accident. According to online security firm Trend Micro, the creaky video player is no longer safe due to two critical vulnerabilities which leave machines vulnerable to malware attacks.
The flaws are open-ended and could be used to infect PCs with malicious code under the guise of an official update. With Apple washing its hands of Quicktime on Windows, there are no security updates coming to address the issue.
“The only way to protect your Windows systems from potential attacks against these or other vulnerabilities in Apple QuickTime now is to uninstall it,” Trend Micro warned in a statement.
“In this regard, QuickTime for Windows now joins Microsoft Windows XP and Oracle Java 6 as software that is no longer being updated to fix vulnerabilities and subject to ever increasing risk as more and more unpatched vulnerabilities are found affecting it.”
If you have Apple’s Quicktime video player on your Windows PC, now is the time to uninstall it. While there currently aren’t any active attacks against the aforementioned vulnerabilities, that doesn’t mean it won’t happen in the future. Stay vigilant.
Here’s how to uninstall, courtesy of Apple’s official support page:
Uninstall QuickTime 7 for Windows
Before you uninstall
If you’re using a QuickTime 7 Pro registration key, you might want to save the key before uninstalling QuickTime 7. It’s in the Register tab of QuickTime Player preferences (Edit > Preferences).
If you’re not sure whether a program requires QuickTime, contact the program’s developer. Most recent media-related programs for Windows—including iTunes 10.5 or later—no longer use QuickTime to play modern media formats. These programs either play the media directly or use the media support built into Windows.
Uninstalling QuickTime 7 also removes the legacy QuickTime 7 web plug-in, if present. Websites increasingly use the HTML5 web standard for a better video-playback experience across a wide range of browsers and devices, without additional software or plug-ins. Removing legacy browser plug-ins enhances the security of your PC.How to uninstall
Uninstall QuickTime 7 from Control Panel, as you would other programs on your PC. When following Microsoft’s instructions for uninstalling programs, choose QuickTime 7 as the program to uninstall.
Or use Windows Search to find “Uninstall QuickTime,” and start the process that way.
Comments
One response to “Security Alert: How To Fully Uninstall Quicktime From Your Windows PC”
Dang it! I hope Apple provides a patch. I have the PRO (paid) version and find I come back to it time and time again. Because it’s so native to the files we use with our iOS devices the output files just work. Whether it’s compressing mov, m4v or mp4 files or stripping the audio tracks out of a concert movie it just seems to do it correctly every time. I can’t remember the number of time the VLC program or some other app has just produced a file that says unknown file in my DLNA media players, iTunes or when saved back to my iPhone. Not to mention the number of failed files (no video or no audio or unrecognised) I’ve had trying to get then to play in Windows Media Player. As simple as it is (QuickTime Pro) just works. Also sick of trying to find an alternative (costly or doesn’t work or link downloads any number of other suspicious files) so for now I’m keeping my QuickTime. Soz Chris. Ps I’ll let you know if I get hacked/scammed/formatted etc. Cheers Billy