Disable QuickTime updates

Question

Is there a way to turn off QuickTime Updates aside from the steps:

1. Control Panel
2. QuickTime
3. Updates
4. Uncheck the checkbox

I’ve been searching through to the registry but no luck there. The main reason is because when I sysprep a computer that has QuickTime it gets the checkbox back.

OS: XP SP2

Answer 1

After using ProcMon for a few minutes it seems there is no registry entry containing update preferences, it appears to be stored in a proprietary format in a file called QuickTime.qtp (QuickTime Preferences file).

It is located at:

C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Local Settings\Application Data\Apple Computer\QuickTime

where [username] is the name of the user account.

First, turn off automatic updates on a system, copy the QuickTime.qtp file, and during sysprep you could have this file copied over to each computer's directory shown above.

Out of curiosity though, why are you putting yourself through this using sysprep? WDS is far superior in many ways. You can configure a "skeleton" computer just the way you like it, then image it and deploy it to multiple computers.

Answer 2

From what I understand the updates run based on a schedule in Windows Task Scheduler.

1. Click Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools
2. Click on Scheduled Tasks or Task Scheduler depending on your version of Windows
3. Find AppleSoftwareUpdate and click it
4. Hit Delete on your keyboard