Fix Media Center Studio without jumping through too many hoops!

I tried a few times to fix Media Center Studio after updates release by Microsoft broke parts of its functionality. There was several threads on the Green Button forum about renaming .dll files or replacing them with blank ones and changing security permissions, which sounds like an easy way to give yourself a headache. None of these fixes seemed to work for me, I also tried a patcher program someone had released but still my Media Center Studio was busted.

Then a user on the Green Button forums kindly gave me a link to MCSFix.exe you can see the thread here. You need to create a shortcut to the MCSFix.exe in the startup menu. Or if you don’t reboot often you could create a scheduled task for it to run every hour or so.

So far its been working for me and my customised Media Center menu’s have remained in place.

www.phaze1digital.com

Media Center updates break custom menus

I’m sure most Windows Media Center users who customize their menus, are now aware that something is up with the menus in Media Center!

I use Media Center Studio which is a fantastic 3rd party utility developed by Advent. With Media Center Studio you can create custom menu strips and move icons around to different menus strips and customize your Media Center to suit your needs.

However recent updates from Microsoft for the updated online content services: MSN Video Player / Netflix HD have broken Media Center Studio and custom menus in general.

If your like me and you use My Movies you probably hide the native Movies menu strip. I also never use the Sports menu strip so like to hide this as well. I also like to add icons for 3rd party plug-ins such as TunerFree MCE to the native TV menu strip etc. After these recent updates all of my menus and everyone else’s were messed up and I had the native Movies and Sports menus visible again on my Media Center, also the order in which the menus appear had changed.

There is a thread on the Green Button here discussing these frustrations. Fortunately there is some relief in the form of “Hide Media Center Menu Strips” a little utility from one of our favorite Media Center developers Mikinho.

With the aid of this utility I was able to quickly and easily re-hide the native Movies and Sports menu strips in Media Center, which has helped to improve my situation some what.

However unfortunately custom menu strips and placement of 3rd party plug-in icons on native menu strips and re-ordering menus are still broken until Media Center Studio hopefully gets fixed.

There has been no official word from Microsoft that I am aware of regarding this issue. But customizing Media Center menus is a “hack” so I wouldn’t expect one any time soon if at all.

Clubhouse Tags: Clubhouse , Media Center , Media Center Studio , Menus

How to move the Netflix & Internet TV 7MC start menu icons

Using Media Center Studio you can edit the Media Center Start Menu strips and icons. If you want to move the new Netflix and Internet TV icons to a custom menu strip you can!

Create a new custom menu or use an existing custom menu such as the one My Movies creates.

In this case I just created a new custom menu called custom menu.

Then move Promo (Movies1) for Netflix and Promo (Browse TV) for Internet TV to your custom menu strip. Save the changes in Media Center Studio.

Open Media Center and the Netflix and Internet TV icons should now appear on your custom menu strip.

Thanks to Advent for the tip about using the promo tiles.

Clubhouse Tags: Clubhouse , Media Center , How-to , Media Center Studio , Netflix , Internet TV

Media Center Studio

One of my favorite Media Center related applications has to be Media Center Studio which is the replacement of MC Menu Mender. Media Center Studio allows you to customize your Media Center setup by adding new themes and editing the Media Center start menu. The application is free and is developed by Advent from the Australian Media Center Community forums. You can download Media Center Studio from the website here.

Overview:

Media Center Studio is a free application for Windows Vista and Windows 7 that enables you to customize Windows Media Center. It is the successor of MC Menu Mender, bringing it up to date for Windows 7 and adding support for theme application and editing.

Features:

• Edit your start menu - rearrange or disable native menu items
• Create your own menu strips, and your own items to go in them
• Monitors your application and returns to Media Center when it exits
• Set up a button on your remote to exit your application
• Create menu items that take you to native Media Center pages, or start media
• Apply themes to Media Center
• Create new themes or edit existing ones

Themes:

Start Menu:

Clubhouse Tags: Clubhouse , story , Media Center , Media Center Studio