Apple stops patching QuickTime for Windows despite 2 active vulnerabilities   
      
   Security firm urges Windows users to uninstall media player.   
      
   by Dan Goodin -   
      
   Ars Technica | Apr 14, 2016 4:30pm PDT   
      
   If your Windows computer is running Apple's QuickTime media player, now   
      would be a good time to uninstall it.   
      
   The Windows app hasn't received an update since January, and security   
      researchers from Trend Micro said it won't receive any security fixes in   
      the future. In a blog post published Thursday, the researchers went on to   
      say they know of at least two reliable QuickTime vulnerabilities that   
      threaten Windows users who still have the program installed.   
      
   "We re not aware of any active attacks against these vulnerabilities   
      currently," they wrote. "But the only way to protect your Windows systems   
      from potential attacks against these or other vulnerabilities in Apple   
      QuickTime now is to uninstall it."   
      
   The retirement of QuickTime for Windows has been in the planning stages for   
      at least a few months, and possibly much longer. Apple has never   
      supported QuickTime for Windows 8 or 10, although some users found ways   
      to work around the restriction. What's more, the January update removed   
      the browser plugin for QuickTime, making it impossible for video on   
      websites to seamlessly play in a user's browser. As a result, there's   
      little chance QuickTime vulnerabilities could be harnessed into a   
      drive-by download exploit. Instead, exploits would have to rely on social   
      engineering that convinces a user to download a video and open it in   
      QuickTime.   
      
   Even so, Apple officials should have shown the courtesy to tell Windows   
      users QuickTime was no longer receiving security updates, rather than   
      leaving it to Trend Micro. At least Apple's website provides removal   
      instructions here. A fun fact from the Microsoft antitrust trial in 1998:   
      A year earlier, during some of Apple's darkest moments as a viable   
      company, a Microsoft official allegedly attempted to force it to abandon   
      QuickTime so Microsoft could have the media playback market to itself.   
      "'Are you asking us to knife the baby?'" then Apple senior VP Avadis   
      Tevanian Jr said during dramatic testimony, quoting a fellow Apple   
      executive who attended the meeting. "'Yes, we want you to knife the   
      baby.'" Teveanian continued, in an alleged paraphrase of Microsoft   
      official Christopher Phillips. "It was very clear."   
      
   --- WWIVToss v.1.51    
    * Origin:  Inland Utopia (1:218/109.0)