Recently, Apple made an announcement that everyone should be familiar with.
They announced that they are no longer supporting QuickTime for Microsoft Windows. In particular, they’re not going to fix any more security vulnerabilities in it.
There are already two known security vulnerabilities with QuickTime for Windows now. Trend Micro’s Zero Day Initiative reported them to Apple last November and instead of fixing them, Apple’s official response was that people should uninstall QuickTime for Windows (as indicated now on the QuickTime for Windows Download page).
We aren’t aware of any attacks against these two vulnerabilities yet. But the fact that these and any other vulnerabilities that are found won’t ever be fixed means that QuickTime for Windows is just like Windows XP now: out of date and dangerous.
Just like you shouldn’t be using Windows XP any more, you shouldn’t use QuickTime for Windows. You should uninstall it if you have it on your Windows system. If you’re not sure if you have it or not, just go to the Start menu in Windows and type “QuickTime”: if it’s on your system you’ll see it in the listing. Choose “Uninstall Quicktime” if it’s in the list and when that’s done, you’ll be done.
This is an important step that you should take not only for yourself, but for the systems of people you look out for, like your children or elder parents. QuickTime for Windows has been around for a while and lots of people have it without realizing it. Unless you’re completely sure it’s not on your system, you should check to see if it’s there. And, even if you are sure, you might want to check anyway: with something like this it’s better safe than sorry.
Please add your thoughts in the comments below or follow me on Twitter; @ChristopherBudd.
