Apple Ends Support for QuickTime for Windows; New Vulnerabilities Announced

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In case you guys missed this, the Department of Homeland Security's United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team says Windows users should uninstall Apple's QuickTime if you have it installed. Apple has already said that it is ending support for QuickTime on Windows and, as further incentive, two new vulnerabilities have been found as well.

Computers running QuickTime for Windows will continue to work after support ends. However, using unsupported software may increase the risks from viruses and other security threats. Potential negative consequences include loss of confidentiality, integrity, or availability of data, as well as damage to system resources or business assets. The only mitigation available is to uninstall QuickTime for Windows.
 
Now that's a name!

Department of Homeland Security's United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team
 
DOHSUSCERT?!
I don't even remember the last time I installed qt. it was that long ago...
 
iTunes does not require it anymore....it might need it for video playback, but I'm not sure. But it does not include it anymore by default.

iPhone videos are still in MOV format, which is starting to become annoying as support for the format is fading. For example I have to transcode to MP4 before I can import in Sony Vegas.
 
heatlesssun said:
Why is QT still a thing? Haven't seen any need for it in many years. Maybe still a thing for Mac users.
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Required to be installed if you use Adobe's suite.

Fortunately you can get by on installing Quicktime Alternative for the codecs instead.

Oh, and the industry standard is ProRes. Which is containered within MOV.
 
rat said:
Required to be installed if you use Adobe's suite.

Fortunately you can get by on installing Quicktime Alternative for the codecs instead.

Oh, and the industry standard is ProRes. Which is containered within MOV.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately QT is the most common format used to edit video. Windows doesn't have anything similar that supports things like: uncompressed video, embedded alpha channel, multiple bit-depth support, codecs for different video hardware, and the list goes on.
Did I mention many camera manufacturers output their files in QT?
 
Does that mean if you need to work with MOV files, you have to buy a Mac? Ugh.

Should have known they'd use that to force people over one of these days.
 
rat said:
Required to be installed if you use Adobe's suite.

Fortunately you can get by on installing Quicktime Alternative for the codecs instead.

Oh, and the industry standard is ProRes. Which is containered within MOV.
Click to expand...
If that's true, hopefully this finally kills it.
 
Xyvotha said:
Unfortunately QT is the most common format used to edit video. Windows doesn't have anything similar that supports things like: uncompressed video, embedded alpha channel, multiple bit-depth support, codecs for different video hardware, and the list goes on.
Did I mention many camera manufacturers output their files in QT?
Click to expand...

Only camera I had that saved files in MOV format was many years ago. It was my first digital camera with a zoom, was 3mp, and only recorded video in low res.
Haven had to deal with MOV files since then.

Haven't done much video editing the last couple years, but none of the video tools I had been working with supported QT anyways.
I say good riddance to one more piece of buggy Apple software.
 
nutzo said:
Only camera I had that saved files in MOV format was many years ago. It was my first digital camera with a zoom, was 3mp, and only recorded video in low res.
Haven had to deal with MOV files since then.

Haven't done much video editing the last couple years, but none of the video tools I had been working with supported QT anyways.
I say good riddance to one more piece of buggy Apple software.
Click to expand...

I think he's talking about professional cameras. High end motion picture cameras like the Arri Alexa record in ProRes compressed QuickTime .mov. There's a lot QT does that other containers don't, as Xyvotha pointed out. Even if it fades in the consumer space in favor of mp4, it isn't going anywhere in the professional world.
 
Deprecated as it may seem, Adobe is still balls deep in QuickTime.
Not kidding; I require QuickTime to keep Premiere from blue-screening my laptop.
 
Vectorworks and a few other drafting software require it as well.
 
Not sure this warrants this kind of attention. It would have come out in the press for the 5 users on Windows who still use QT. Just wondering if this is just a way to spark a little negative press on Apple
 
jpm100 said:
Not sure this warrants this kind of attention. It would have come out in the press for the 5 users on Windows who still use QT. Just wondering if this is just a way to spark a little negative press on Apple
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Speak for yourself... we have over 1k installations, mainly for our law enforcement/judicial staff (heck all our squad cars needed it). It will be like pulling teeth to try and get them to approve uninstallations. Even if alternatives (that we already have and support) were available.

You couldn't believe the plethora janky video systems we need to support (think of all the Chinese knock off surveillance systems used in Qwiki-Mart robbery cases).

Will fully admit LE is a horrible software niche example (just like healthcare)... but it is what it is.
 
Everytime I see "Department Of Homeland Security" I spot the acronym as DOHS and this comes to mind:

 
athenian200 said:
Does that mean if you need to work with MOV files, you have to buy a Mac? Ugh.

Should have known they'd use that to force people over one of these days.
Click to expand...

The MP4 container is based off of MOV. often times if you are just dealing with standard codecs you can just change the file extension and it will be accepted.
 
Ah QtAlt.... it's been a while since I've read that name.... mainl cuz I have not interacted with anything that required quicktime. There's also real alt too...

That said, does QtAlt work for something like Adobe stuff like someone said it required?
 
Don't know, have no Adobe stuff installed besides Flash. Try it and see, it should work.
 
Steve said:
In case you guys missed this, the Department of Homeland Security's United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team says Windows users should uninstall Apple's QuickTime if you have it installed. Apple has already said that it is ending support for QuickTime on Windows and, as further incentive, two new vulnerabilities have been found as well.

Computers running QuickTime for Windows will continue to work after support ends. However, using unsupported software may increase the risks from viruses and other security threats. Potential negative consequences include loss of confidentiality, integrity, or availability of data, as well as damage to system resources or business assets. The only mitigation available is to uninstall QuickTime for Windows.
Click to expand...

Such wonderful support by software and OS vendors these days. Need this software? Sorry it's a security risk so we suggest removing it. Recently MS removed the ability for a ton of games to work in Windows because the DRM is "insecure". So was it insecure all the time it was on the system the whole time you said nothing? What a joke.
 
I guess I should uninstall it, yes?
quicktime.jpg
 
Zepher said:
I guess I should uninstall it, yes?
View attachment 2029
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According to US-CERT:
"
Solution
Computers running QuickTime for Windows will continue to work after support ends. However, using unsupported software may increase the risks from viruses and other security threats. Potential negative consequences include loss of confidentiality, integrity, or availability of data, as well as damage to system resources or business assets. The only mitigation available is to uninstall QuickTime for Windows. Users can find instructions for uninstalling QuickTime for Windows on the Apple Uninstall QuickTime (link is external) page. [4]
"

Apple doesn't have to do anything, and it's no longer supported. You can use Quicktime Alternative. If you don't like it, go ahead and sue, they will like to prove you wrong and waste your time then say they aren't responsible for their format to play on windows, even though they supported it at one time. Isn't the world fun?
 
westrock2000 said:
iPhone videos are still in MOV format, which is starting to become annoying as support for the format is fading. For example I have to transcode to MP4 before I can import in Sony Vegas.
Click to expand...

I think that's why I had to install it. Because I was using iPhone videos (MOV) in Sony Vegas Pro and it required Quicktime be installed for the conversion. I think it didn't work, so I just converted to MP4 using a free download somewhere...
 
MOV is based on the AVI container... that is why MOV used to contain avi at the beginning I still have some mov files that have avi formatted video in the, mostly from CD's that needed to be played in consumer jukeboxes... quick time was the render engine in iTunes twelve... wonder if it is apple not wanting the market share lose of people who want iTunes but not iOS? Then again I have an old quicktime pro account and they stopped releasing new versions for pc last year, might have been one more but the pc version was always different.

I'm actually kinda curious what it uses now... looks that means storing a copy on a machine not connected to the internet until I can get new copies of what mp4 versions of the old music files... I can convert them but then I have a copy not an original file.

oh there is a codec that supports all of those features it is call VC1 Video Codec One... not an inspiring name but definitely runs on windows machines, the MPEG group used it to built the current agreed on standard which is why the codec became cheaper and all the member orgs get a small cut of the residuals for it. The MP4 mpeg format supports all of those features it is why apple switched from MOV to MP4 variants... but they all are based on lazcos and that is from the png standard which is an open standard so people would use it. closed standards which require odels of money tend not to get used because they cut too much into the profit margins... likely why most of the industry uses mpeg standards, good compression, a securable container and linux, iOS, and windows all support it.

I have seen many different studios use ten times as many formats but exr and mp4 is pretty slowly replacing all the specialized formats with extensions to the those formats. Apple tends to buy companies with valuable ip then closes the ip to only work on iOS and then the companies lose market share, to companies that simply need the fastest turn around possible with the least cut into their profits. Look at nuke it replaces shake made by the same developers who let their company get bought then found that they were making less money because less people were willing to replace all their computers with apple if only because you had to by the ram modules from apple at mark up that hurt no matter how much money you had. You would look at apple's site and the same exact ram would cost a couple hundred dollars more, and you could sit in other ram and have it work but then apple simply ended your support contract. I know a couple people paid me to swap the ram when they ended their support contracts. I think they changed some of that I can understand if you say bought ram from from someone else and it failed at they had to figure out if the machine failed due to faulty ram or something else... but they still charged as much as they wanted and people paid or ended their support contracts.

But clearly if the code is buggy and not supported then it is likely there is a piece of logic that already can be used to attack your machine and they are just giving people time uninstall it... I'm trying to figure out it is worth having a second machine just to run itunes when I want to play music, or if I need to just plan on rebuying all my music again. Which would be a problem since some of the music is directly from the singers... some of those songs are grandfathered agaisnt legal cases not sure even if I find them on a another format if I can get get the origins still. I have copies in open formats but the proof or purchase is the big thing.
 
rezerekted said:
I had a game that required Quicktime but being the Apple hater I am I always used this instead of installing Apple's Quicktime.

Free Download QuickTime Alternative 3.2.2
Click to expand...

QuickTime Alternative - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Development has now ceased and the version of the QuickTime codec now lags behind that released by Apple.
Click to expand...

May, or may not make a difference security-wise...Though it's worth noting that the last update was December 18, 2010 with QT Lite 4.1.0.
 
I doubt it was codecs that were the security risk but rather their shit software and/or its updater module. That bonjoi(sp?) updater server they surreptitiously install has had a few security issues in the past.
 
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