Don’t like the Windows 7 Media Center ? Many reason would include you using your PC for business rather then movies. Or you just don’t want it at all. This is how you can Remove Windows 7 Media Center.

Turn Off WMC Using Programs and Features

Probably the most convenient way to disable the Windows 7 Media Player is through the Control panel. Open Control Panel and select Programs and Features.

On the left hand panel click on Turn Windows Features on or off.

Go to Media Features and expand the folder. Then Uncheck Windows Media Center…

Verification message will pop up making sure if you want to disable it, click Yes.

Then the box next to Windows Media Center will be empty. Click OK.

To complete the process you must reboot.

After getting back from the restart, the WMC icon will be gone and there won’t be any way to launch it.

Re-enable WMC

If you want to re-enable it, just go back in and re check it.

Again you’ll need to wait while it’s configured, but when it’s done, a restart is not required.

Disable Media Center Using Group Policy

Note: This process uses Group Policy Editor which is not available in Home versions of Windows 7.

Click on the Start menu and type gpedit.msc into the Search box and hit Enter.

Now navigate to User Configuration \ Administrative Templates \ Windows Components \ Windows Media Center.

Double-click on Do not allow Windows Media Center to run. Then select the radio button next to Enabled, click OK and close out of Group Policy Editor.

Now if a user tries to launch WMC they will get the following message.

Conclusion

A pretty easy step if you dont want the Windows 7 Media Center. I personally do not use it either. VLC works just fine for me.

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Have you been looking for a way to watch your favorite viral videos from YouTube and Dailymotion from the couch? Today we take a look at an easy to use plugin which allows you to watch streaming video in Windows 7 Media Center.

Install Macrotube

The first thing we need to do is download and install the plugin called Macrotube (link below) following the defaults through the install wizard.

After it’s installed, open Windows 7 Media Center and you’ll find Macrotube in the main menu.

Currently there are three services available…YouTube, Dailymotion, and MSN Soapbox. Just select the service where you want to check out some videos.

You can browse through different subjects or categories…

Or you can search the the service by typing in what you’re looking for…with your remote or keyboard.

There is the ability to drill down you search content by date, rating, views, and relevance.

There are a few settings available such as the language beta, auto updates, and appearance.

Now just kick back and browse through the different services and watch what you want from the comfort of your couch or on your computer.

Conclusion

This neat project is still in development and the developer is continuing to add changes through updates. It only works with Windows 7 Media Player, but there is a 32 & 64-bit version. Sometimes we experiences certain videos that wouldn’t play and it did crash a few times, but that is to be expected with a work in progress. But overall, this is a cool plugin that will allow you to watch your favorite online content from WMC.

Download Macrotube and get more details and troubleshooting help fro the GreenButton forum

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If you are a Windows Media Center user, you’ll really want to check out Media Browser. The Media Browser plug-in for Windows Media Center takes your digital media files and displays them in a visually appealing, user friendly interface, complete with images and metadata.

Requirements

• Windows 7 or Vista
• Microsoft .Net 3.5 Framework

Preparing your Media Files

For Media Browser to be able to automatically download images and metadata for your media libraries, your files will have to be correctly named. For example, if you have an mp4 file of the movie Batman Begins, it needs to be named Batman Begins.mp4. It cannot be Batmanbegins.mp4 or Batman-begins.mp4. Otherwise, it’s unlikely that Media Browser will display images and metadata. If you find some of your files aren’t pulling cover art or metadata, double-check the official title of the media on a site like IMBD.com.

TV Show files

TV show files are handled a bit differently. Every TV series in your collection must have a main folder with the show’s name and individual subfolders for each season.

Here is an example of folder structure and supported naming conventions.

• TV Shows\South Park\Season 1\s01e01 – episode 1.mp4
• TV Shows\South Park\Season 1\South Park 1×01 – episode 1.mp4
• TV Shows\South Park\Season 1\101 – episode 1.mp4

Note: You need to always have a Season 1 folder even if the show only has only one season. If you have several seasons of a particular show, but don’t happen to have Season 1, simply create a blank season 1 folder. Without a season 1 folder, other seasons will not display properly.

Installation and Configuration

Download and run the latest Media Browser .msi file by taking the defaults. (Download link below) When you reach the final window, leave the “Configure initial settings” box checked, and click “Finish.”

You may get a pop up window informing you that folder permissions are not set correctly for Media Browser. Click “Yes.”

Adding Your Media

The Browser Configuration Tool should have opened automatically. If not, you can open it by going to Start > All Programs > Media Browser > Media Browser Configuration Wizard.

To begin adding media files, click “Add.”

Browse for a folder that contains media files and click “OK.” Here we are adding a folder with a group of movie files.

You can add multiple folders to each media library. For example, if you have movie files stored in 4 or 5 different folders, you can add them all under a single library in Media Browser.  To add additional folders, click the “Add” button on the right side under your currently added folder.

The “Add” button to the left will add an additional Media Library, such as one for TV Shows. When you are finished, close out of the Media Browser Configuration Tool.

Open Windows Media Center. You will see Media Browser tile on the main interface. Click to open it.

When you initially open Media Browser, you will be prompted to run the initial configuration. Click “OK.”

You will see a few general configuration options. The important option is the Metadata. Leave this option checked (it is by default) if you wish to pull images & other metadata for your media.

When finished, click “Continue,” and then “OK” to restart Media Browser.

When you re-enter Media Browser you’ll see your Media Categories listed below, and recently added files in the main display. Click on a Media Library to view the files.

Click “View” at the top to check out some of the different display options to choose from. Below you see can “Detail.” This presents your videos in a list to the left. When you hover over a title, the synopsis and cover art is displayed to the right.

“Cover Flow” displays your titles in a right to left format with mirror cover art.

“Thumb Strip” displays your titles in a strip along the bottom with a synopsis, image, and movie data above.

Configurations

Settings and options can be changed through the Media Browser Configuration Tool, or directly in Media Browser by clicking on the “Wrench” at the bottom right of the main Media Browser page. Certain settings may only be available in one location or the other. Some will be available in both places.

Plug-ins and Themes

Media Browser features a variety of Plug-ins and Themes that can add optional customization and slick visual appeal. To install plug-ins or themes, open the Media Browser Configuration Tool. Click on the “plug-ins” tab, and then the “More Plug-ins…” button.

Note: Clicking on “Advanced” at the top will reveal several additional configuration tabs.

Browse the list of plug-ins on the left. When you find want you like, select it and then click “Install.”

When the install is complete, you’ll see them listed under “Installed Plug-ins.”

To activate any installed theme, click on the “Display” tab. Select it from the Visual Theme drop down list. Close out of the Media Browser Configuration Tool when finished.

Some themes, such as the “Diamond” theme shown below, include optional views and settings which can be accessed through a configuration button at the top of the screen.

Clicking on the movie gives you additional images and information such as a synopsis, runtime, IMDB rating…

… and even actors and character names.

All that’s left is to hit “Play” when you’re ready to watch.

Conclusion

Media Browser is a fantastic plug-in that brings an entirely different level of media management and aesthetics to Windows Media Center. There are numerous additional customizations and configurations we have not covered here such as adding film trailers, music support, and integrating Recorded TV. Media Browser will run on both Windows 7 and Vista. Extenders are also supported but may require additional configuration.

Download Media Browser

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An annoyance for music lovers who enjoy FLAC format, is there’s no native support for WMP or WMC. If you’re a music enthusiast who prefers FLAC format, we’ll look at adding support to Windows 7 Media Center and Player.

For the following article we are using Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit edition.

Download and Install madFLAC v1.8

The first thing we need to do is download and install the madFLAC v1.8 decoder (link below). Just unzip the file and run install.bat…

You’ll get a message that it has been successfully registered, click Ok.

To verify everything is working, open up one of your FLAC files with WMP, and you’ll get the following message. Check the box Don’t ask me again for this extension and click Yes.

Now Media Player should play the track you’ve chosen.

Delete Current Music Library

But what if you want to add your entire collection of FLAC files to the Library? If you already have it set up as your default music player, unfortunately we need to remove the current library and delete the database. The best way to manage the music library in Windows 7 is via WMP 12.

Since we don’t want to delete songs from the computer we need to Open WMP, press “Alt+T” and navigate to Tools \ Options \ Library.

Now uncheck the box Delete files from computer when deleted from library and click Ok.

Now in your Library click “Ctrl + A” to highlight all of the songs in the Library, then hit the “Delete” key. If you have a lot of songs in your library (like on our system) you’ll see the following dialog box while it collects all of the information.

After all of the data is collected, make sure the radio button next to Delete from library only is marked and click Ok.

Again you’ll see the Working progress window while the songs are deleted.

Deleting Current Database

Now we need to make sure we’re starting out fresh. Close out of Media Player.

Click on Start and type in services.msc into the search box and hit Enter.

Now scroll down and stop the service named Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service.

Now, navigate to the following directory and the main file to delete CurrentDatabase_372.wmdb

%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Media Player\

Again, the main file to delete is CurrentDatabase_372.wmdb, though if you want, you can delete them all. If you’re uneasy about deleting these files, make sure to back them up first.

Now after you restart WMP you can begin adding your FLAC files. For those of us with large collections, it’s extremely annoying to see WMP try to pick up all of your media by default. To delete the other directories go to Organize \ Manage Libraries then open the directories you want to remove.

For example here we’re removing the default libraries it tries to check for music. Remove the directories you don’t want it to gather contents from in each of the categories.

We removed all of the other collections and only added the FLAC music directory from our home server.

SoftPointer Tag Support Plugin

Even though we were able to get FLAC files to play in WMP and WMC at this point, there’s another utility from SoftPointer to add. It enables FLAC (and other file formats) to be picked up in the library much easier. It has a long name but is effective –M4a/FLAC/Ogg/Ape/Mpc Tag Support Plugin for Media Player and Media Center (link below). Just install it by accepting the defaults, and you’ll be glad you did.

After installing it, and re-launching Media Player, give it some time to collect all of the data from your FLAC directory…it can take a while. In fact, if your collection is huge, just walk away and let it do its thing.

If you try to use it right away, WMP slows down considerably while updating the library.

Once the library is setup you’ll be able to play your FLAC tunes in Windows 7 Media Center as well and Windows Media Player 12.

Album Art

One caveat is that some of our albums didn’t show any cover art. But we were usually able to get it by right-clicking the album and selecting Find album info.

Then confirming the album information is correct…

Conclusion

Although this seems like several steps to go through to play FLAC files in Windows 7 Media Center and Player, it seems to work really well after it’s set up.

We haven’t tried this with a 64-bit machine, but the process should be similar, but you might want to make sure the codecs you use are 64-bit. We’re sure there are other methods out there that some of you use, and if so leave us a comment and tell us about it.

Update: Thanks to reader Pavel Chikulaev for pointing out that using this method won’t let you forward /rewind tracks or show track length. Hopefully someone out there has a fix for this?

Download madFlac V1.8

Go to Source Article at How to Geek