Faux fonttypes

Simply do not use them. Ever.

Disable iTunes Store arrows under windows

Nearly everyone hates these little buggy store link buttons right to every song, artist or album in your iTunes library. They are so easily to hit accidentally!
And for some reason, Apple made them persistent in iTunes8.
Some genius found a solution for this, the original idea can be found on theglitch.ws.

But it still works easier, with no text editor messing at all. This solution works for every OS and languague.
Pure genius solution in four steps:
Make sure your iTunes is closed.

• Press Win+R to open a command box
• Type cmd and press enter
• Copy the following text:



"%CommonProgramFiles%\Apple\Mobile Device Support\bin\defaults" write com.apple.iTunes show-store-arrow-links -bool FALSE



• Right click the command line window, choose paste and press enter.
  

The command line box can be closed most elegantly by typing the command "exit", btw.

That's it! If it didn't work for you, check out the link above for the crafty solution.
Read the next post to see how to get those fine grained star controls...

iTunes8: Activate half-star ratings for windows

Required:
iTunes 8. Make sure it doesn't run, or you'll have to restart it.

---

Edit: easier solution!
Press Win+R to open the Command box.
Type cmd and press enter to open a command line.
Copy the following text:

"%CommonProgramFiles%\Apple\Mobile Device Support\bin\defaults" write com.apple.iTunes allow-half-stars -bool TRUE

...and press enter.
Attention: Pasting in the command line works only via right click!


If this doesn't work for you, maybe the following one is right for you.
My old & crafty solution:

Required:
Notepad ++. Standard Notepad gets confused with XML files.

• Press Win+R to open a Command box.
• Type "%appdata%" and press enter. This will bring you to the hidden application settings folder.

• Open the folder "Apple Computer" and, within, the "iTunes" Folder.
  You should see a file named iTunesPrefs, probably with a .xml following (according to your view settings). Do not mistake it for the iTunes.pref, this is a version from earlier iTunes and not editable as easily.
  

• Start Notepad ++.
• Drag the iTunesPrefs in this window to open it for editing.
  
  
• Do not panic. Information is encrypted for iTunes to be readable, you don't have to understand anything.
• Scroll all the way and search the sequence of:
  

  
  </dict>
  </dict>
  </plist>

• insert a new line above and copy/paste:
  

<key>allow-half-stars</key>
<data>
dHJ1ZQ==
</data>

• Save and close - that's it.

Restarting iTunes should leave you with a much finer star control.