How to Get Your Creative ZEN Touch to Work in Windows Vista

Microsoft's new Vista operating system is a huge improvement over its buggy XP operating system. However, it can be infuriating when you discover that many pieces of your older equipment no longer work!

Case in point is the Creative ZEN Touch MP3 player. Unfortunately, if you install the Creative Jukebox software from the CD that came with it, you will find that Vista does not recognize the MP3 player.

To remedy that migraine-inducing situation, here is how to get your Creative Zen to work in Windows Vista.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Creative ZEN Touch MP3 player
• Computer with Windows Vista
• Creative MediaSource 5.10.38
• Creative PlaysForSure Devices Plugin 5.00.36

1. Your first step is to determine which version of Creative MediaSource you are trying to get to work. If it is a version prior to the 5.10.38 release, then Windows Vista will not recognize your Zen Touch MP3 player.

2. You can download a new version of Creative MediaSource by visiting the company's website at www.creative.com. You want to look for the file under the "support" tab and then under "download."

3. Fill out the relevant information to get to the download page for the Creative ZEN Touch.

4. Download the files titled "Creative PlaysForSure Devices Plugin 5.00.36 for Creative MediaSource 5 Player/Organizer" and "Creative MediaSource Player/Organizer 5.10.38."

5. First, install the Creative MediaSource software. Then, connect your ZEN Touch MP3 player to your computer.

6. Next, run the PlaysForSure Device Plugin software.
   
   IMPORTANT - This will change the firmware version on your Creative ZEN Touch, thus it will also ERASE ALL OF YOUR SONGS. Even though it asks you to back up the files, you will find that it can't do it in Vista until the firmware is updated. Try backing up your Creative ZEN Touch on a Windows XP computer.

7. FYI - My backup wouldn't reload after I updated the firmware, so you may have to do like me and reload all of your music to the player individually. But, at least your Creative ZEN Touch will work in Vista now.

Tips & Warnings

• Get all of your CDs ready to be reloaded back onto your ZEN Touch, or make a hardcopy backup of all of your files on your ZEN Touch before starting the upgrade.
• All of your music will be erased from the MP3 player

[fandom]

on 2/5/2009 ch part of it. I tried to run it right away but got a 'cannot find explorer.exe error - again, no biggy).

5) Reboot, plug in your Zen. Again for me, Notmad didn't work. This is what worked: Without messing up anything, install Nomad Explorer by Creative on top of it all, and reboot again.

6) After reboot, with your Zen still plugged in, right click the little Notmad icon on the right part of the taskbar and select 'Connect Jukebox Zen'.

And voila, check your explorer, it should hopefully recognise the Zen Touch like windows xp would.

If you still run into trouble, just install stuff from the beggining, making sure Compatibility: WinXP SP2 and Run as Admin are used everywhere, and keep rebooting till it hopefully works.

Best of luck, Fandom

[fandom]

on 2/5/2009 ***THIS WORKED***
For all of you that want to get their music out of the Zen touch, and are stuck with Vista and 1.01.03 firmware (non vista recognisable), and don't want to erase everything by installing the latest firmware, here is what worked for me:

1)Uninstall every piece of Touch software you got and reboot.

2) Download the latest drivers from Creative: JB3MV2...exe, together with the latest Nomad explorer, and the latest Notmad explorer from Red Chair (a trial is enough, version 9.0.3 currently).

3) Right click the driver, properties, go to compatibility mode, and select Windows XP SP2. Make sure your Zen is unplugged (worked for me that way). Right click the driver installer again and Run as Administrator. It hanged around 72% for me, no biggy, open your task manager and shut the installer off.

4)Before rebooting, install Notmad explorer.(I installed only the Zen tou

[ashleyfrieze]

on 11/9/2008 Some facts:

1. You need the Zen Touch to have the v2 firmware on it for it to work with Vista - it will then plug and play
2. You can update the firmware from a Windows XP machine only.
3. You cannot make the firmware updater work if you have Windows Media Player 11 installed
4. You can rollback from Windows Media Player 11 to WMP10, but you need to uninstall THREE things to do it
5. Information available here: http://support.creative.com/kb/ShowArticle.aspx?SID=16737

Good luck.

I managed to make it work in the end - email me if you're totally stuck - [e-mail]

[FreeSpoken]

on 8/22/2008 (and be patient as it takes awhile) plus Nomad Explorer. All your files on you Zen Touch will become available as a drive. Mediasource software should also work, but I haven't tried that yet. Hope this works for others as well as it did for me. Good luck to you all!

[FreeSpoken]

on 8/22/2008 (and be patient as it takes awhile) plus Nomad Explorer. All your files on you Zen Touch will become available as a drive. Mediasource software should also work, but I haven't tried that yet. Hope this works for others as well as it did for me. Good luck to you all!