QuickTime Alternative is a codec package for Microsoft Windows for playing QuickTime media, normally only playable by the official QuickTime software distribution from Apple Inc.[1] Development has now ceased and the version of the QuickTime codec now lags behind that released by Apple.
QuickTime Alternative consists of codec libraries extracted from the official Apple distribution, including the official QuickTime plugin required for playing QuickTime files (.MOV, .QT and others) in web browsers such as Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox, and also includes Media Player Classic.
[citation needed] The main functional differences between the official QuickTime distribution and QuickTime Alternative from an end-user standpoint are in feature set, size, and consumption of system resources.
In addition, QuickTime Alternative does not run background processes such as the optional QuickTime Tray Icon from the official distribution.
[citation needed] QT Lite is a stripped-down version of QuickTime Alternative that contains only the base components, and does not install Media Player Classic.