Common Registry Hacks

[woohoo]

Or as I've just found you can uncheck the "show balloon tips" box on Tweak UI...

[OffBeatMammal]

found another over at TGB - GuideTime .... lets you change when MCE tries to update itself (probably useful to the BladeRunnerPro guys as well) - I've been sleeping in the living room (no, not a lack of WAF but I've got flu and didn't want to keep her awake all night with my coughing) and the damn thing scared the heck out of me by waking up at some ungodly hour and only by looking through the event viewer could I work out what was going on !

[ExtremePC]

I have a list of about 300 registry hacks that can make things a little easier. I've split them up into categories and please don't use them all at one on the same machine as some of them conflict.

You will have to copy - paste the ones you want into your own .reg file.

[OffBeatMammal]

Hey ExtremePC.....
just wondering what AMD Processors this applies to:

;----- AMD Processor Fix
;----- dword:00000100= 256KB SecondLevel Cache, dword:00000200 = 512KB SecondLevel Cache
;-----
;[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Session Manager\Memory Management]
;"SecondLevelDataCache"=dword:00000200
;-----

[ExtremePC]

Hey ExtremePC.....
just wondering what AMD Processors this applies to:

All of them, but you need to know how much cache is on your particular model.

[benneh]

These are gold! Many useful ones in there, especially like the notepad show status bar hack, now i can see my column and row number makes notepad my scripting tool of choice

[RoderickGI]

I couldn't find this anywhere else on this forum, so I thought I would share.

Many people seem to want to join a Domain with MCE 2005, which can be done during installation (once, so get it right), or if you have updated from MCE 2004. However, the default configuration wont allow you to join at a later time, but it can be told to. . .

This was referrenced in WXPnews, and published on vBulletinStyles. See link or text below. (In case the page disappears. )
http://www.tss2000.nl/vbforum/showthread.php?t=50

Of course, all caveats. No warranty, no responsibilty, at your own risk. However WXPnews is pretty reliable. Also, as we know, if you can join a Domain, you can't use an Extender. Additionally, you may not be able to install Rollup2 (Emerald).

Boy, I'm starting to sound like you guys after only a couple of days reading this forum. Good job. Good Australian information. (A bit depressing though. No HD Digital TV with sound yet! )

DLL patching hero Rafael has found a great way to enable your MCE 2005 install to join Windows domains. Rafael, known for patching the now famous uxtheme.dll to enable custom Windows XP msstyle themes has found a reg edit in Windows XP Media Center 2005 to unlock the previously "greyed out" join domain option. This method is pretty complex but confirmed to work.

This will allow you to leave and join domains within Windows Media Center Edition 2005.

01 - Insert Windows XP CD.
02 - Start > Run > X:\i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons
03 - (replace X: with the appropiate drive letter)
04 - Acknowledge prompt by clicking 'Yes'.
05 - Skip updating process by clicking 'Cancel' or by pressing 'Esc'
06 - After installation, acknowledge success msg. by clicking 'Ok'
07 - Start > Shutdown > Restart
08 - At boot menu, select 'Microsoft Windows Recovery Console'
09 - Select proper installation to log onto (default: 1) and press 'Enter'
10 - (If prompted, enter Administrator password and press 'Enter')
11 - Type (without quotes) and press enter: 'cd system32\config'
12 - Type (without quotes) and press enter: 'copy SYSTEM C:\'
13 - Type (without quotes) and press enter: exit
14 - At boot menu, select 'Windows XP Media Center Edition'
15 - Start > Run > Type: 'regedit' and press enter
16 - Click on 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE'.
17 - File > Load Hive...
18 - Browse and select C:\SYSTEM
19 - Specify key name 'BANANA' and click OK
20 - Expand: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > BANANA > WPA > MedCtrUpg
21 - On the right-hand side, double-click IsLegacyMCE value
22 - Change selected value to 1 and click Ok. (THAT IS NOT AN L!)
23 - Click on BANANA subkey (under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE).
24 - File > Unload Hive. Confirm.
25 - Start > Shutdown > Restart
26 - At boot menu, select 'Microsoft Windows Recovery Console'
27 - Select proper installation to log onto (default: 1) and press 'Enter'
28 - (If prompted, enter Administrator password and press 'Enter')
29 - Type (without quotes) and press enter: 'cd \'
30 - Type (without quotes) and press enter: 'copy SYSTEM C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM'
31 - (Yes, you want to overwrite - Go ahead and do it)
32 - Type (without quotes) and press enter: 'del SYSTEM'
33 - Type (without quotes) and press enter: 'exit'
34 - At boot menu, select 'Windows XP Media Center Edition'
35 - Join domain.

[Sambooka]

Nice post RoderickGI thanks for sharing.

Rep points for you.

Cheers

Sambooka

[OffBeatMammal]

Extend soft padding specifically for "Sports" programs
Usual instructions for normal padding extension:
In RegEdit, expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, SOFTWARE, Microsoft, Windows, CurrentVersion, Media Center, Settings, and VideoSettings.
Next, to modify the amount of time MCE records after a show is over, right click on RecordingSoftPostPadding and select modify.
Click on the Decimal radio button to convert the value into seconds. Then, just key in the amount of time, in seconds, in the value box that you want MCE to use.
If you want to change the amount of time before a show, just repeat the above instructions for the key named RecordingSoftPrePadding.
Once you have modified the values, close the Registry Editor and restart your computer so the new settings can take effect.

Media Center can use a separate interval to stop recording if it is a sporting event. Just follow the above instructions and modify the RecordingSportsHardPostPadding key.

Of course, for this to work your EPG must support categories for shows... ah, another little challenge

[Quazza]

Wow thanks RoderickGI, I've been looking for the "how to rejoin a Domain" ever since I had to rebuild my server. The image I had was before the HTPC had joined the domain. Anyway all fixed now and its great. WAF now back up to 6 outa 10

By the way if you want to have Concurrent logins work on your HTPC while its on a domain I have couple of files that will enable this.

How do I attach them.

Cheers Quazza