Change Windows Media Center Background

Written by Alan Friday, 10 December 2010 10:00

The other day a very strange thing happened.  I turned on my TV, switched the input to my HTPC running Windows 7 Media Center and was dumfounded to see a new background.  I checked Windows Update, but it hadn’t run.  If it had then that would have been a whole other problem since it’s set to download, but wait for me to install updates.  After a few minutes I realized my children had left a movie (Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian) on the menu screen.  That menu screen was showing up as the Media Center background.

This got me to thinking about changing the background from that boring blue that we’ve all become so used to.  As it turns out, Microsoft makes that task very difficult.  I found a registry hack here that you could use, but it’s pretty obscure.  The best way seems to be using Media Center Studio, which I have previously used for changing around the Media Center Menu.

For this example I am only changing the background and leaving everything else set to default.  Media Center Studio does allow you to create entire themes with different fonts, colors, icons, etc.

1. Download and install Media Center Studio.

2. Exit Windows Media Center if it’s running.  Open Media Center Studio.  By default the Themes tab opens, New button at the top of the screen.

3. In the center column give your theme a name and the click the arrow to the left of Images.

4. Under Images navigate to Common => Background => COMMON.ANIMATED.BACKGROUND and you will see that familiar blue background in the right-hand pane.

5. Click the browse button above the background picture and choose your new background image.  It will have to be in either .png or .jpg format.  Click Save and then go the Themes tab and click Apply.

Obviously in the above example background you’ll probably want to change the text color.  I will cover creating a complete theme in the future.

Alan

Alan is the owner and editor of Making Windows Easy. In addition to writing about technology he is also an avid distance runner and hiker. Read More

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