Categories
Windows Media Center

How to reset Windows Media Center settings

Ever have issues with duplicate lineups? Duplicate channel listings in your guide? Or just overall quirky issues with your media center? I found a quick and simple way to reset it to default.

All you need to do is go to the C/ProgramData/Microsoft/eHome folder and rename or delete (I would advise rename) mcepg2-0.db and the folder mcepg2-0. Then just restart your Windows Media Center services. The way I went about it was through safe mode, as I could not do it while the system was running within windows itself. Once you do that, reboot, and you have a fresh Windows Media Center copy. If you need to re import your recordings, now is a good time.

Categories
Windows Media Center

Backup and Restore Recordings for Media Center – Windows 7

I needed to reformat my DVR computer, and I wanted to keep my subscriptions, and recording lineup, etc. So I needed to find out how and where Media Center stores this information, so I could easily restore it.

What to back up :

I backed up this folder : C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\eHome , the folder you are really after is the one called mcepgX-X-X, mine was called mcepg2-0. I was backing up that entire directory (C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\eHome) because I was unsure if they would ever change that directory for some odd reason. So I figured better be safe then sorry. I just had a robocopy script that did this nightly for me.

This is what my directory looks like :
[zp src=”storage_pic1.jpg” album=”blog/mediacenter/” width=”600″]

How to restore

Open a command prompt windows and run this C:\Windows\ehome\loadmxf.exe –i locationofbackupfiles
This is what mine command looked like :

C:\Windows\ehome>loadmxf.exe -i "C:\Users\1337sk33t\Desktop\Media Center Backup
backup\recordings\20151022_214547"
Loading... 100%
C:\Windows\ehome>

You noticed I pointed it to the files without extensions themselves. I did the recordings, I wasn’t sure what the subscriptions or lineup were so I skipped them. I then went to download the latest TV Guide and everything popped right up!

Tasks > Settings > TV > Guide > Get Latest Guide Listings

Enjoy, please test your back up, make sure you have a reliable back up. Something like SugarSync/DropBOX are pretty reliable, and free sources of backing up.

Categories
Windows Media Center

How to rename and remove menu options for Windows Media Center and Extenders

I love my Windows Media Center setup, and my 360 running as extenders. I use Media browser for my movie playing, because it displays movies much better then the default option. TO make things more streamlined I wanted to rename MediaBrowser and also remove Movies. So what I did was use Media Center Studio to rename Media Browser, and Media Center Strips Removal Tool to remove the Movies option!

Works great for Windows 7 x64 windows media center and extenders. I uploaded the versions I use, just in case the creators remove them.

Enjoy!

SOURCES :
Media Center Strips Removal tool” target
Media Center Studio