Media Center Studio Problem Update
Last Updated on Tuesday, 19 April 2011 08:01 Written by Alan Wednesday, 20 April 2011 06:00
A while back those of us who use Media Center Studio to customize Windows Media Center ran into a problem. The customizations stopped working even though Media Center Studio still retained all of the custom settings. We found a solution to the original Media Center Studio problem, but in the past week it has popped up again, prompting another look. Apparently a recent Windows Fix undid the fix for the previous error. Thanks Microsoft.
The new fix is similar to the old one, but requires you to go a step or two further. So let’s retrace the steps and include that additional information so that you all won’t have to switch between this article and the prior one to solve a single annoying issue.
Before you begin, you will need to close Windows Media Center.
1. Open Computer and navigate to C Drive => ProgramData => Microsoft => eHome => Packages => MCEClientUX => dSM
2. Locate the file startresources.dll and rename it to startresources.old.
3. Here’s where things have changed. Click the Back button and look for other dSM folders that will labeled with numbers, such as dSM-2, dSM-3, etc.
4. Click each of those folders and repeat step 2
This should fix the problem. However, upon reboot, the problem frequently returns and these steps will need to be repeated. Hopefully Microsoft will soon release another fix.
Change Windows Media Center Background
Last Updated on Thursday, 9 December 2010 10:07 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.
Fix For Recent Media Center Studio Problem
Last Updated on Wednesday, 23 June 2010 08:22 Written by Alan Saturday, 19 June 2010 08:00
If you use Windows Media Center and you use Media Center Studio to customize the menus then chances are you have been bit by the recent problem. Specifically, all of your customization has disappeared and no amount of opening Media Center Studio and “fixing” it works. Thankfully a simple fix has been found and here it is:
1. Make sure you have enabled viewing of hidden files (if you don’t know how, then click HERE)
2. Close Media Center.
3. Navigate to Computer => C Drive => ProgramData => Microsoft => eHome => Packages => MCEClientUX => dSM
4. Locate the file startresources.dll and rename it to startresources.old.
5. Now reopen Media Center and all of your customization work should be back.
