Apple are dropping support for Quicktime, a plugin for viewing and streaming video, on Windows on account of no longer being useful.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple has confirmed it'll no longer update or support Quicktime 7 for Windows.

Way back when, QuickTime was a requirement to run iTunes, as the Quicktime code was used in part to provide the music streaming capabilities of the software, which resulted in many people who had iPods – and later, the iPhone – installing the plugin to their Windows PCs when they wanted them to properly work with their computers. As Apple notes on its support page, however, this situation changed in later versions of iTunes, and Quicktime has not been a requirement to run iTunes since October 2011.

Despite not being relevant for iTunes any more, Quicktime continued to be useful to serve up video on the web. However, with HTML5 encouraging browsers to support video directly as part of the standard language of the internet, having a separate plugin for the ability now appears redundant. The combination of these two factors appears to have encouraged Apple to have made the decision to no longer support the plugin on Windows.

The announcement comes a week after the Department of Homeland Security recommended Windows users uninstall Quicktime because of potential security holes, making Quicktime potentially vulnerable and use of it on Windows PCs a major security risk (these flaws do not affect the Mac OS version, which remains in support). Given its status as a potential security threat and the lack of any updates coming from Apple, many sources now recommend that Quicktime is removed from all Windows PCs as soon as possible.

For those who are unsure how to, Apple's official support pages offer a guide for how to remove Quicktime from Windows PCs. Apple have been reached for comment to confirm the Wall Street Journal's report.

This article originally appeared at Technically Motivated

Still got QuickTime on your Windows computer? Not for much longer, if you value the security of your machine.

After Apple decided it was not going to support the video player anymore, PC security firm TrendMicro sent out a message recommending that any remaining users of the software uninstall it. Why? Because they’ve identified that there are at least two exploits in the code and since QuickTime will not see any updates this leaves your computer open to potential danger.

TrendMicro identified the two zero-day exploits in the code as part of their services, and it makes use of a heap corruption to allow for remote code execution. Sure, it requires the user to visit compromised websites and because a number of web browsers no longer support the QuickTime plugins you’d need to download and play infected video files, but it’s better not to take that chance isn’t it?

Apple itself has urged users to uninstall the software from Windows machines, providing a set of uninstall instructions on their site. If you’re on Mac OSX though, it’s up to you whethere you wish to uninstall or not, as Apple will obviously continue to support their own OS and so any problems can be blocked from the OSX side.

As always though, the best defense against malicious programs online is your own common sense and caution. Knowing when certain programs are acting as doorways is right behind that though in importance.

In all the hype and fuss about the new VR headsets, it’s worth remembering that these are businesses wanting your money in the long run. The technology is new and the uptake needs to be good if VR is to persist as more than just a passing fad. Maybe that’s why in their FAQ Oculus say that all sales are “final” when talking about their refund policy.

The FAQ in question is located on the Oculus Home, the digital store for VR-ready titles for the Rift headset. The passage in question reads: “All software purchases from the Oculus Store are final, and unless required by local law, no refunds will be provided.”

Of course, places like Europe do have laws concerning the sale of digital goods in which the consumer gets a 14-day cooling off period to change their mind. In order to get anything for the Rift though, you’re required to waive your right to that 14 days, with the Oculus term of service, section 4.11 stating: “if you are located in the EU, you consent that the supply of the digital content may begin immediately following the completion of your purchase and you acknowledge that you therefore will lose any statutory rights you may have to withdraw and receive a refund.”

Oculus aren’t the only company to have you waive your rights to refunds in the terms of service you sign to use software or hardware of course, but most of the time you’re not going to be aware of it because… well, how many of us really read all of the terms before we sign?

As mentioned at the beginning of the article, VR might be the popular thing right now but it needs to sell in order to last. That’s probably one of the reasons behind this ‘final sales’ stance, and it does make sense from a purely business standpoint. So make sure you know you want the game before you buy it, there’s no going back once you have.

Did you know Amazon are about to launch a special PC gaming store on April 4th? Well, now you do. To celebrate they’re having a week of deals on components and gear for your rig. Yay!

The sale – the Amazon PC Gaming Week – will start at midnight BST or 16:00 PDT on April 4th and will run throughout the week, and to help you find what you’re looking for if you’re unsure Amazon have split their new store into sections so you can find that component to help your PC become VR-ready if that’s your goal or if you just want an upgrade find a new GPU.

Among the deals right now are half price HyperX 8GB RAM modules and around $150 off GTX 980 cards, and this is even before the sale has begun. Check back tomorrow to take in the deals in the sale and maybe give a piece of hardware a loving new home inside the case of your beloved gaming rig.

And just to make it easier to find, here’s the PC Gaming Week store page so you’re able to get right into your online shopping… or like me just stare at the pieces and make a note of what you’d love to acquire as your next upgrade.

VR hype is quite high right now, with at least 3 major competitors bringing out headsets soon. The group that arguably could be said to have started this off are even shipping off their pre-orders of the seconed generation of their headset. Or, at least they’d planned to be.

However from some e-mails that have been sent around to some people who pre-ordered the hardware it seems that Oculus have hit a problem – they underestimated the demand for the early adopters and have as a result run low on components needed to make the second Rift. Oops.

However, it’s not all bad. The Facebook-owned company have said that they’re planning to foot the handling and post costs as reparations for the delay. The e-mail says that this applies to “all orders placed through today” – although if that means it’d include anyone who ordered today is unknown. However, the fees for shipping and handling vary from between $50-$100 and so if that was standing in your way before… well, now could be your chance to own an Oculus Rift.

For those who have already pre-ordered, you can expect a revised shipping estimate by April 12th.