iTunes for Windows Vista: Troubleshooting CD issues caused by device filters

Sometimes, device filters installed by other software can conflict with iTunes for Windows. This can cause issues like these:

• iTunes does not detect any supported CD burners.
• iTunes does not recognize audio CDs.
• Windows does not recognize audio CDs after installing iTunes.
• You are presented with this message even after reinstalling iTunes:

  Warning! The registry settings used by the iTunes drivers for importing and burning CDs & DVDs are missing. This can happen as a result of installing other CD burning software. Please reinstall iTunes." Device filter entries exist to somehow modify the way a device works. If you are having trouble using CDs, follow these steps to temporarily disable the other third-party optical drive software entries.

Important: These steps involve making changes to the Windows registry using the Registry Editor (Regedit). Even if you are very comfortable editing the registry, you should make a backup of the registry prior to editing it. Making mistakes in Regedit can cause strange behavior and can even prevent Windows from starting. The changes may cause the software that installed the entries to not work correctly until you restore the entries. If you need more help, you may perform a search on "backup registry" in Windows Help.

To disable third-party device filters in Windows Vista

1. From the Start menu, in the Start Search field, type regedit and press Enter.
2. If Windows needs your permission to continue, click Continue.
3. Click the arrow next to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE to expand the tree.
4. Click the arrow next to SYSTEM.
5. Click the arrow next to CurrentControlSet.
6. Click the arrow next to Control.
7. Click the arrow next to Class.
8. Click to select the heading that begins {4D36E965- (don't click the plus sign here). It should look like this:

   

9. On the File menu, click Export.
10. In the dialog box that opens, make sure the "Selected branch" radio button is selected and save the file somewhere that you can find it.
11. Right-click the LowerFilters key and from the shortcut menu, click Delete. Note: If you don't see a LowerFilters key then continue to the next step.
12. Right-click the UpperFilters entry and from the shortcut menu, click Modify.
13. Select the entire contents of the text in the Value data text field.
14. Right-click the selected text and from the shortcut menu, click Cut.
15. Type GEARAspiWDM and press Return. Pressing Return adds a carriage return in the field and is important.
16. Click OK.
17. Restart the computer.

If this resolves the issue, that indicates that the device filter entry from some other piece of software was creating a conflict with the optical drive software installed with iTunes. At this point, other optical drive software may not work until it is reinstalled. In order to avoid running into the conflict again, check to see if there is an updated version of your other optical drive software before reinstalling.

If this does not resolve the issue, you can return your registry to the way it was before by following these steps:

1. Run the Registry Editor (Regedit) as explained in steps 1 through 5 above.
2. On the File menu, click Import. Locate the file that you exported above.
3. Exit Registry Editor and restart the computer.