Category: Windows Media Center

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.

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.

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