The description shown below in Apple Software Update says this is an update to iTunes and QuickTime, it doesn’t mention any additional software, services, or drivers. But it turns out that the full package offers much, much more than it discloses, including the potential for Windows crashes.

After you approve the installation using your administrator’s credentials, this download dialog box appears.

The first sign that something is very odd is the discrepancy between the size shown at the top of the dialog box and the value shown alongside the progress bar. Which size is correct: 77 MB or 13.50MB?

Note that Apple Mobile Device Supprt, Bonjour, and MobileMe are being installed along with iTunes and QuickTime.

If you open the Programs folder in Control Panel and sort the list of installed programs by vendor, you can see that all of the downloaded programs have now been installed. Remember, Apple never disclosed its intention (or asked permission) to install anything except iTunes and QuickTime.

Using Process Explorer and sorting by company name, you will see that the installation has configured three system services and a user module to run automatically at startup, again, with no disclosure or request for permission.

After completing the iTunes upgrade,  open the System Restore dialog box and look at the list of available restore points. The installation is listed as a "Device Driver Package Install" of Apple-branded USB controllers. (This driver file, Usbaapl.sys on 32-bit systems, is installed in the Common Files\Apple folder.) Again, nothing in the documentation disclosed or asked for permission to install a device driver.

Because this description makes no mention of iTunes or QuickTime, a user experiencing troubles after an upgrade might not realize that this is the restore point that needs to be used.

MobileMe

Nothing in the description or license agreement mentioned anything about Apple’s MobileMe service.  Even if your computer has never had an iPod or iPhone connected to it, a MobileMe icon will appear in Control Panel.

Opening the Drivers folder and sorting by date revealed a brand-new file. GEARAspiWDM.sys is a file-system filter driver that is used with CD and DVD writing programs. It has a long and colorful history of causing STOP errors with Windows versions going back as far as Windows 2000. Using the Previous Versions dialog box reveals that this is actually an update; the previous driver file was dated January 2008.