Apple's Safari - Startup Problems

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Occasionally, we discover problems or conflicts with program installations which we investigate until the problem is solved. When this happens, we want to tell you, the reader in hopes of a speedy, pain free resolution.

In this case, the problem was discovered on one of our own machines that we use to write and publish our website. We use five (5) different web browsers to verify our work on the website with so that we know if there are any problems viewing our site with the most commonly used web browsers. It was during this check that we discovered the problem here with Apple's Safari.

Recently, we had installed a program known as, "QuickTime Alternative by KL Software". This is a very well written alternative to Apple's QuickTime Player as it has a significantly lower overhead and does not load itself into memory when not in use the way Apple's QuickTime Player does. If you don't plan on using the Safari Web Browser, we recommend this program. If however you do plan on using the Safari Web Browser, you do not want to install the QuickTime Alternative. We have found that Safari will not launch with this program installed in place of Apple's QuickTime Player.

Safari for Windows uses some of the same program files common to other Apple software for Windows products (most notably, QuickTime for Windows). Starting with Safari for Windows version 4.0.4, QuickTime for Windows 7.6.4, program files common to more than one of the programs have been stored in a single location: "Apple Application Support".

What this means is that if you have Safari installed with the QuickTime Alternative, and you merely reinstall Safari, the problem will NOT be corrected. You will need to uninstall QuickTime Alternative and reinstall Safari with QuickTime. Another option listed is to install iTunes however this is not necessary.

Once Safari with QuickTime is installed and the Windows machine is rebooted, you will notice that the QuickTime Task icon shows up in the Icon Tray. Many users do not want this running as the program will start automatically for QuickTime content and having this icon in the tray is unnecessary and only uses more resources. To resolve this problem, the QuickTime Task icon can be disabled in the System Configuration Utility.

To disable the QuickTime icon, follow these directions: (Do not type the quotes).

1. Click on the Start Menu and choose, "Run".
2. Type in "msconfig" and click "OK". This will bring up the System Configuration Utility.
3. Click on the "Startup" tab.
4. Scroll through the list and uncheck the box next to, "QTTask".
5. Click, "Apply" and then "OK".
6. A dialog box will appear asking you to restart your computer for the changes to take effect. Click, "Restart".
7. Upon restarting Windows, a dialog box will appear for the System Configuration Utility. To prevent this dialog box from appearing each time windows is started, place a check in the box at the bottom where it says, "Don't show this message or launch the System Configuration Utility when Windows starts".

That's it. The QuickTime Task icon will not appear any longer in the icon tray. To reverse the process, just follow the same procedure on recheck the box in item 4 of the instructions.

NOTE
When QuickTime is updated, the task will be once again placed in the System Configuration Utility and will once again need to be disabled.