Quicktime + IE

[sK8x]

Hey

Has anyone else had this problem. When i view a website with a quickrimw file embedded it in i get a blank page holder. This happens with quiktime 4 and 5 on a win2k box using IE 5.5sp2 or the latest ie6 build. any ideas?

[ritsuke Veteran]

https://www.neowin.net/bboard/showthread.ph...s=&threadid=651

[sK8x]

thanks man. its odd cause i had this prob and i somehow managed to get it to work with an old beta or ie6

[cheekymonkey]

:( Can't believe MS have removed support for Netsrcap (sic) style plugins.... no, wait a minute I can. I'm thinking of going back to 5.5 sp1 so that I can view embedded Quicktime movies, use PKware's zip handler, and any other useful add-ons that I have yet to find doesn't work. In the meantime let all be naive and believe that apple are gonna rush out a compatible ActiveX version cos that's what it says that developers have to do in a MS kb article (can't remember or find the link again, sorry).

[me101 Veteran]

Found this on WinOSCentral, that AXCEL has a fix for the "MS IE 5.5 SP2 + 6.0"

I bet you have read about the MS IE 5.5 SP2 and 6.0 (both the beta builds available on the net, and the interim builds bundled with WinXP/2002 RC releases) inability of playing QuickTime Movie (QTM) flics in MOV format. The good news is Apple issued an ActiveX plugin fix, but it only enables QTM in these IE releases, does NOT take care of the other Netscape-style plugins, because Microsoft *completely* removed support for all these Netscape-only plugins that do not include ActiveX extensions/plugs. So I found a fix... :)

News source: WinOSCentral

View: AXCEL's MS IE 5.5 SP2 + 6.0 FIX

[DGR]

Or you could just go to www.apple.com/quicktime (?) and get the update... :)

[mortensen]

Or you could stop watching Quicktime movies on the web...

-mortensenj

[cheekymonkey]

As I posted elsewhere, the update installs a file - qttask.exe - which runs at startup to protect QT's file associations.....

qttask.exe monitors the Windows registry for changes to the QuickTime MIME associations. It is required for the control to work correctly with QuickTime 4.1 and older, because they work REALLY, REALLY hard to make sure that no ActiveX control "hijacks" the MIME types associated with the QuickTime plug-in.

When IE encounters an OBJECT tag in a web page, the CLASSID attribute tells it exactly which ActiveX control to use for the file. When it encounters an EMBED tag it has to search for an ActiveX control or (in versions prior to 5.5 SP2) a Netscape style plug-in because it knows only the MIME type of the file. IE first searches the registry to see if there is an ActiveX control that can handle the MIME type, and only if it doesn't find any will it look for a Netscape style plug-in.

Because of this, the _only_ way for the QuickTime 4.1 and older plug-in to work at all in Windows IE is to have the installer and MIME configuration panel "unregister" any ActiveX control that is registered for the plug-in's MIME types (btw, when a control is unregistered, it's data is backed up so it can be restored when QuickTime is unregistered).

IE 5.5 SP2 and newer will NEVER use any Netscape style plug-in, and apple engineers didn't want to require every Windows user to upgrade to a new version of QuickTime so the ActiveX control needs to work "on top of" existing versions of QuickTime. To do this, qttask.exe watches for the QT installer and MIME config panel to change MIME associations, and then jumps in and "corrects" them so the association is with the ActiveX control rather than with the plug-in. It also notices when other applications change associations, but it will never automatically "fix" a change made by anything other than QuickTime.

qttask.exe is not necessary with QT5 even though it shipped long before the control, because we made it possible to override the standard QT MIME configuration code - which the ActiveX control does.

So in summary, qttask.exe isn't strictly necessary with QT5 but disabling it on an older version of QuickTime will make it possible for the ActiveX control to be disabled.

PS: The fix was *originally* posted by me and not anybody else, as previously suggested

[aliengrey]

so, is it required to have qttask.exe to run in the background at all times?

[cheekymonkey]

I deleted the reg key so that it never runs and all seems ok so far.

Its relatively easy to remove such apps which run at startup using the likes of "Startup Control Panel" by Mike Lin. I can't remember from where you can get it... maybe others can help on this?

Remember kids - messing with the reg can be a risky business and should only be done if you know what you're doing (even if you do, think twice and back it up).

[me101 Veteran]

Startup Control Panel Can be found at Mike Lin's home page

It's a great app, and has to be included in everyone's collection of "essential apps".

[aliengrey]

well i removed qttask.exe from startup using the system configuration utility built into windows me system information application

i reboot..

try to play a qt5 only movie on apple.com/trailers.. movie seems to load up but then ie5.5 locks up and i have to ctrl-alt-del it

[me101 Veteran]

So it begs the question, is qttask.exe actually necessary to have run every time on the registry?

[aliengrey]

so uh... what are you trying to say? just remove the registry key but keep qttask.exe loaded in the background?

[cheekymonkey]

When you get rid of the reg key qttask.exe *never* loads at startup.

Once you've actually installed the fix, and run qt5 there is no actual need for qttask. What it does is protect the file associations, so should anything nick them off qt then load up qqtask and the embedded player should work once more.

[me101 Veteran]

Does the qttask.exe restore the ability to start at every logon/turnon via adding itself to the registry?

Or are we safe in deleting the reference to qttask.exe in the run portion of the registry?

[cheekymonkey]

Personally, I never really feel 110% safe in deleting items from the "HKLM / run" part of my reg, let alone recommending that others do the same.:s

However, since I unticked the entry via Mike Lin's little beauty it has remained so and not re-added itself. The reason I used the Startup cpl was because I wanted to be able to see if this would be the case without digging through the reg, and so far, so good.

This approach works with qt5, but for older versions....

"It is required for the control to work correctly with QuickTime 4.1 and older, because they work REALLY, REALLY hard to make sure that no ActiveX control "hijacks" the MIME types associated with the QuickTime plug-in."

.... so I reckon the removal of the reg key is really only an option if you run qt5 or above.

[aliengrey]

so my best bet is just leave qttask alone then.. and hopefully apple, in the next release of qt5 update.. they'd get rid of qttask all together

[me101 Veteran]

I'm extremely comfortable in "poking" around in the registry, and have like a dozen or so bookmarks in regedit listing my "fav" places to poke around.

But as for everyone else, it's not a good idea to go doing that without a LOT of experience of screwing up your PC in the past.

Mile Lin's Startup Ccontrol Panel is possibly the best app for the job of seeing what starts, and where it starts from, and taking control of what starts etc...

In the end, I just removed the entry in the reg to start qttask.exe and everything seems to be good.

Thanks for the heads up on qttask.exe, cheekymonkey.

[aliengrey]

Originally posted by aliengrey  

well i removed qttask.exe from startup using the system configuration utility built into windows me system information application

i reboot..

try to play a qt5 only movie on apple.com/trailers.. movie seems to load up but then ie5.5 locks up and i have to ctrl-alt-del it

i installed ie6, tried that technique again.. qt now has no problems, it works

odd