Tip Tweaks and Tricks gathered for Vista MCE

[test7875]

Originally Posted by jollster101

I have uploaded a few tutorials and guides in respect of some of the Vista goodies that are built in. They wont be for everyone but give an insight into some of the more prominent and available utils within the OS. They may be good for beginners.

This is stuff I have found and collated so isnt my own personal work but its there to have a read of.

They have been placed in the Vista section of the Downloads and are in the Tutorials and Guides bit.

Configuring and using Defender to assist in protecting your shiny install.

Power Management stuff.

All about UAC and how to tame it or turn it off completely and why you would.......or wouldn't.

Defrag a drive other than C. For some reason MS thought nobody in the world would ever have any other drive.

Backup and Recovery using Vistas built in utility. A revamped util will now allow you to backup a complete system like Acronis but without the extra cost. (I believe this is subject to the version of Vista you have).

Excellent!

Could you attached it to this post if they arent too big.
Might save people the time searching.

[jollster101]

Thats the problem, they are too big due to the screen shots in them.

The only alternative was to put them in the Downloads section.

[FrancWest]

Hi,

is there a tweak in order to get the Delete option on subfolders in the UI back ? In MCE 2005 this was standard, but with Vista MCE this option is gone. You can only delete files from the UI not folders. And I used that option a lot when cleaning up.

Franc.

[test7875]

Registy Hacks (most will work with MCE2005 as well)

Skip Forward Interval - Enter the number of milliseconds you want to skip forward when you press the skip button. (1 second = 1000 milliseconds)

Registry key - HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Media Center\Settings\VideoSettings

Registry value - SkipAheadInterval

Registry value data type - REG_DWORD

Skip Back Interval - Enter the number of milliseconds you want to skip back when you press the replay button. (1 second = 1000 milliseconds)

Registry key - HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Media Center\Settings\VideoSettings

Registry value - InstantReplayInterval

Registry value data type - REG_DWORD

Storage Location For Recorded TV - Enter the path for the storage location for recorded TV.

Registry key - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Media Center\Service\Recording

Registry value - RecordPath

Registry value data type - REG_SZ

Watched Folders For Recorded TV - If you have recorded TV stored in multiple locations enter the folder path below. You can enter one folder path for each line below. Example: C:\Recorded TV

Registry key - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Media Center\Service\Recording

Registry value - WatchedFolders

Registry value data type - REG_MULTI_SZ

Notification Before A Recording Starts - When you are watching TV a notification appears before the channel is changed to start a new recording. Enter the number of milliseconds to show this notification before Media Center changes the channel to begin the recording. (1 second = 1000 milliseconds)

Registry key - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Media Center\Settings\VideoConstants

Registry value - RecorderStartWarningTimeout

Registry value data type - REG_DWORD

More Info Panel Timeout - Enter the number of milliseconds to show the More Info panel while watching TV or DVD. (1 second = 1000 milliseconds)

Registry key - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Media Center\Settings\VideoConstants

Registry value - InfoBarTimeout

Registry value data type - REG_DWORD

Seek Bar Timeout - Enter the number of milliseconds to show the paused seek bar while watching TV or DVD. (1 second = 1000 milliseconds)

Registry key - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Media Center\Settings\VideoConstants

Registry value - SeekBarTimeout

Registry value data type - REG_DWORD

Seek Bar Rewind and Fast Forward Timeout - While watching TV or DVD pressing REW/FWD displays the seek bar. Enter the number of milliseconds to show the seek bar when transitioning from REW or FWD to normal playback while watching TV or DVD. (1 second = 1000 milliseconds)

Registry key - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Media Center\Settings\VideoConstants

Registry value - SeekBarBriefTimeout

Registry value data type - REG_DWORD

Seek Bar Slow Motion Timeout - Enter the number of milliseconds to show the seek bar when video is in slow motion playback while watching TV or DVD. (1 second = 1000 milliseconds)

Registry key - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Media Center\Settings\VideoConstants

Registry value - SeekBarSloMoTimeout

Registry value data type - REG_DWORD

Enable Overscan - Some televisions do not display the full Media Center user experience. Do you want Media Center to pull in critical UI elements?

Registry key - HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Media Center\Settings\MCE.PerUserSettings

Registry value - marginSaved

Registry value data type - REG_DWORD

Registry value data - 1 = enable overscan; 0 = disable overscan

Bottom Margin - How many units should Media Center pull in critical elements from the bottom of the screen?

Registry key - HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Media Center\Settings\MCE.PerUserSettings

Registry value - marginBottom

Registry value data type - REG_DWORD

Top Margin - How many units should Media Center pull in critical elements from the top of the screen?

Registry key - HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Media Center\Settings\MCE.PerUserSettings

Registry value - marginTop

Registry value data type - REG_DWORD

Right Margin - How many units should Media Center pull in critical elements from the right side of the screen?

Registry key - HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Media Center\Settings\MCE.PerUserSettings

Registry value - marginRight

Registry value data type - REG_DWORD

Left Margin - How many units should Media Center pull in critical elements from the left side of the screen?

Registry key - HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Media Center\Settings\MCE.PerUserSettings

Registry value - marginLeft

Registry value data type - REG_DWORD

Enable My DVDs - Media Center has a new DVD gallery with cover art and descriptions called My DVDs. Do you want to enable My DVDs? This setting is only available in Update Rollup 2 for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 and later.

Registry key - HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Media Center\Settings\DvdSettings

Registry value - ShowGallery

Registry value data type - REG_SZ

Registry value data - Gallery = enable My DVDs; Play = do not enable My DVDs

Autostart Enhanced DVD Content - Some DVDs include bonus content enhanced for Media Center. Do you want to automatically start the content?

Registry key - HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Media Center\Settings\AutoScan

Registry value - _autoPlayMCLEnabled

Registry value data type - REG_DWORD

Registry value data - 1 = automatically start; 0 = do not automatically start

DVD Notification Timeout - Enter the number of milliseconds that you want to view the notification that a DVD has been inserted and is about to automatically start playing. (1 second = 1000 milliseconds)

Registry key - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Media Center\Settings\VideoConstants

Registry value - DVDNotificationTimeout

Registry value data type - REG_DWORD

Search Depth - My DVDs Gallery will search all locations that you have added to your My Videos space. How many levels deeps should it search for DVD content? This setting is only available in Update Rollup 2 for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 and later.

Registry key - HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Media Center\Settings\DvdSettings

Registry value - FolderSearchDepth

Registry value data type - REG_DWORD

Search Network Locations - My DVDs Gallery will search all locations that you have added to your My Videos space. Should it include network shares and folders in its search? This setting is only available in Update Rollup 2 for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 and later.

Registry key - HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Media Center\Settings\DvdSettings

Registry value - SearchNetworkFolders

Registry value data type - REG_DWORD

Registry value data - 1 = search network folders; 0 = do not search network folders

Show DVDs In Drives First - My DVDs Gallery can display DVDs that are loaded in drives as the first items or sorted in with the rest of your DVDs. Should DVDs that are loaded in drives appear first? This setting is only available in Update Rollup 2 for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 and later.

Registry key - HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Media Center\Settings\DvdSettings

Registry value - ShowDiscsInDrivesAtTop

Registry value data type - REG_DWORD

Registry value data - 1 = show DVDs in drives first; 0 = show DVDs in drives based on the current sort order

Show Cache File Location - In My DVDs when no metadata can be found for the current disc, the location of the cache file can be displayed on the DVD details page. You can edit this file to include any data that you would like to see displayed on the details page instead. Should the location of the cache file be displayed if there is no metadata? This setting is only available in Update Rollup 2 for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 and later.

Registry key - HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Media Center\Settings\DvdSettings

Registry value - ShowCacheLocation

Registry value data type - REG_DWORD

Registry value data - 1 = show cache file location; 0 = do not show cache file location

Suppress Eject Prompt - When a 3rd party application (More Programs or Online Spotlight) tries to eject a disc, do you want a confirmation dialog? This setting is only available in Update Rollup 2 for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 and later.

Registry key - HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Media Center\Settings\DvdSettings

Registry value - SuppressExtensibilityEjectPrompt

Registry value data type - REG_DWORD

Registry value data - 0 = show eject prompt; 1 = do not show eject prompt

Display My Music As Last Viewed - Display my music as I last viewed it sorted by artist, albums, playlists, songs or genres.

Registry key - HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Media Center\Settings\Audio

Registry value - fMyCollectionShouldBeSticky

Registry value data type - REG_DWORD

Registry value data - 1 = remember last music view; 0 = do not remember last music view

Show Add To Queue Notification - Do you want to be notified every time music has been successfully added to the queue?

Registry key - HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Media Center\Settings\Audio

Registry value - fShowAddToQueueSuccessPrompt

Registry value data type - REG_DWORD

Registry value data - 1 = show Add To Queue notification; 0 = do not show notification

Enable Universal Remote Control - If you have a universal remote control you may need to enable it. A reboot is required for this setting to take effect.

Registry key - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\HidIr\Remotes\745a17a0-74d3-11d0-b6fe-00a0c90f57da

Registry value - EnableDebounce

Registry value data type - REG_DWORD

Registry value data - 1 = enable universal remote control; 0 = disable universal remote control

Set Remote Control ID - To enable your Media Center to respond to a specific remote control ID do the following; 1. Press and hold the DVD Menu key on the remote then press a number button (1-8) for 5 seconds. Remotes with visible LED signal indicators will blink twice to confirm the change. 2. Enter that same number below. 3. Save. 4. Restart the Media Center PC. Note: To enable Media Center to respond to all remotes use the number 0. A reboot is required for this setting to take effect.

Registry key - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\HidIr\Remotes\745a17a0-74d3-11d0-b6fe-00a0c90f57da

Registry value - CodeSetNum0

Registry value data type - REG_DWORD

This setting also requires deleting the following registry values:

Registry key - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\HidIr\Remotes\745a17a0-74d3-11d0-b6fe-00a0c90f57da

Registry value - CodeSetNum1

Registry value - CodeSetNum2

Registry value - CodeSetNum3

Display Wireless Passwords - When joining a wireless network, do you want to read the password as you enter it or do you want it to be hidden?

Registry key - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Media Center

Registry value - DontHideWirelessKey

Registry value data type - REG_DWORD

Registry value data - 1 = display password; 0 = hide password

Optimize For Display Type - By default Media Center Extender is optimized for display on a traditional TV. However, if you have a LCD or plasma TV you may want to disable this optimization in order to improve picture quality.

Registry key - HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Media Center

Registry value - TVSkin

Registry value data type - REG_DWORD

Registry value data - 1 = optimize for traditional TV; 0 = optimize for LCD or plasma screen

Show Network Congestion Notification - Do you want to be notified on your Extender when there is network congestion preventing good performance?

Registry key - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MediaCenterP eripheral
Registry value - DisableTransraterDialogs

Registry value data type - REG_DWORD

Registry value data - 0 = show notification; 1 = do not show notification

Show 'Not Enough Bandwidth For TV' Notification - Do you want to be notified on your Extender when there is not enough bandwidth to enable a good TV experience?

Registry key - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MediaCenterP eripheral

Registry value - DisableMHN

Registry value data type - REG_DWORD

Registry value data - 1 = show notification; 0 = do not show notification

Prompt When Navigating Between Secure and Insecure Pages - Should the Extender prompt when navigating between secure and insecure pages within a partner application?

Registry key - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MediaCenterP eripheral\Setup\Internet Settings

Registry value - WarnOnZoneCrossing

Registry value data type - REG_DWORD

Registry value data - 0 = prompt; 1 = do not prompt

Prompt When Submitting Nonencrypted Information - Should the Extender prompt when submitting nonencrypted information in a partner application?

Registry key - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MediaCenterP eripheral\Setup\Internet Settings\Zones\3

Registry value - 1601

Registry value data type - REG_DWORD

Registry value data - 1 = prompt; 0 = do not prompt

Prompt On Mixed Content - Should the Extender prompt when displaying a partner application page that contains both encrypted and nonencrypted content?

Registry key - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MediaCenterP eripheral\Setup\Internet Settings\Zones\3

Registry value - 1609

Registry value data type - REG_DWORD

Registry value data - 1 = prompt; 3 = do not prompt

Adjust Audio and Video Network Priority - Do you want to prioritize a seamless audio experience higher than a seamless video experience when there is network congestion preventing good performance?

Registry key - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MediaCenterP eripheral

Registry value - DisableTransrater

Registry value data type - REG_DWORD

Registry value data - 0 = prioritize audio higher than video; 1 = prioritize audio and video equally

Published Saturday, April 29, 2006 7:48 PM by astebner

Some more registry hacks

To Hide or show Items on MCE main Startup Page.

Run regedit

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Media Center\Start Menu]

"HideTV"="0"

"HideWebSite"="0"

"HideRadio"="0"

"HideMusic"="0"

"HideVideos"="0"

"HideDVD"="0"

To hide use "1" to show use "0"



"My TV" with on TV Tuner

If you have no TV tuner but you would like "MY TV" on the Main Startup page to play the DVR-MS (Recorded TV).

Run RegEdit

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Media Center\Settings\TVConfig\iVideoSource

set iVideoSource = to "1"



Increase Buffer Size for Pausing Live TV

Run RegEdit

"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows \Cur rentVersion\Media

Center\Service\Video\Tuners"

BackingFileDuration the defalt is 300

Setting BackingFileDuration to "600" will give you 1 hour

Setting BackingFileDuration to "900" will give you 1.5 hours

Setting BackingFileDuration to "1200" will give you 2 hours


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ill add this to the main body on the 1st page as well

[ozhound]

http://www.xpmediacentre.com.au/comm...do=file&id=156

You can run this batch file to enable multiple concurrent terminal or remote desktop connections

works with x86 and x64(i havent personally tested the x64) and has 3 batch files for Business, Home Premium and Ultimate.

[krypto]

Here's a page with some more detailed instructions to go with the previous post.

http://www.missingremote.com/index.p...k=view&id=1220

[Nudge]

Extra item for the list, registry edit for how recorded tv file names are stored
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Media Center\Service\Recording

Add new or edit existing the String Value - 'filenaming'

%Ch - Channel Number
%Cn - Station Name
%T - Title of show
%Et - Episode Title
%Dt - Date and Time

Default setting - %T_%Cn_%Dt recorded file may look like CSI Miami_WIN Wollongong_20071010 2245.dvr-ms

Simpler Setting - %T_%Et_%Cn recorded file may look like CSI Miami_Body Count_9.dvr-ms

Later,

Nudge

[test7875]

Updated with network help

[test7875]

Network problems?? Read the following

DHCP is designed to take the user out of the equation of assigning an Internet Protocol (IP) address to a certain computer connected to a network, and making the process completely automatic. In order to set up or change the configuration of the TCP/IP settings make your way via the Start button, Control Panel, Network and Internet, Network and Sharing Center, and then Manage network connections.

In the Network Connections window, you will be able the see one or more connections depending on your system, right-click the connection you want to manage and select Properties from the contextual menu that will be displayed. Under the Networking tab, select either Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) or Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6) depending on which protocol you use. Most likely, it is IPv4. Make sure that the Obtain an IP address automatically and Obtain an IPv6 address automatically are selected in order to automatically assign the IP addresses to your computers.

Sometimes, however, you might run into problems. The kind that the Network and Sharing Center will not be able to resolve on its own. And you will find that you lost network connectivity. One such example is the deletion of the TCP/IPv4 default gateway address when the network interface IP address for DHCP in Windows Vista is configured via the Netsh command-line tool, with a command prompt such as: "netsh interface ipv4 set address name="Local Area Connection" source=dhcp".

In such a case, you will have to turn to the "Ipconfig" command-line utility in Vista. Enter "cmd" in the Search box under the "Start menu" and then right-click the highlighted result and choose Run as administrator, or press Ctrl + Shift + Enter in order to run command prompt with elevated privileges. There are two commands that you can use, both (in the order illustrated below) explained by Microsoft:

"/release [Adapter] : Sends a DHCPRELEASE message to the DHCP server to release the current DHCP configuration and discard the IP address configuration for either all adapters (if an adapter is not specified) or for a specific adapter if the Adapter parameter is included. This parameter disables TCP/IP for adapters configured to obtain an IP address automatically. To specify an adapter name, type the adapter name that appears when you use ipconfig without parameters.

/renew [Adapter] : Renews DHCP configuration for all adapters (if an adapter is not specified) or for a specific adapter if the Adapter parameter is included. This parameter is available only on computers with adapters that are configured to obtain an IP address automatically. To specify an adapter name, type the adapter name that appears when you use ipconfig without parameters."

How to fix network bottlenecks

recently I encountered a really frustrating problem. Using Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) to connect from a Vista Enterprise machine to a Windows 2003 server, the performance was so woeful that I was starting to worry whether there was a problem with the server.

As it happens, my fears about the server were unfounded, but the thought that Vista’s networking stack was to blame turned out to be correct. The Next Generation TCP/IP stack in Windows Vista supports something called Receive Window Auto-Tuning. This is nothing to do with the RDP “window” you see on the screen, but rather a TCP buffer which TCP/IP clients use to ensure smooth transmission.

Essentially, the TCP receive window is the amount of data that is sent in one chunk before waiting for an acknowledgement to come back from the machine at the other end. It's one of the trickiest things to optimise in TCP/IP because you need to balance throughput with reliability -- if you transmit too much data in one go, if there is an error in the data flow, the whole lot has to be sent again. Windows XP was originally tuned for dial-up connections (lots of errors, so very small chunks of data were sent) but this caused performance problems on high speed broadband networks.

In XP SP2, Microsoft increased the receive window value for better performance on broadband, but it's still not optimal for many situations.

Vista is supposed to improve on this situation: Vista has a new feature called "Receive Window Auto-Tuning" which constantly monitors bandwidth capacity and latency, and adjusts the TCP window on the fly for any given situation. It also enables TCP window scaling – by default the maximum TCP window size if 65,535 bytes, but window scaling allows a client to advertise that it’s optimised to receive a bigger window than this – it’s designed to prevent TCP window bottlenecks in high-bandwidth environments. Vista’s maximum advertised TCP window is 16MB.

Therefore, in a given situation a Vista machine will typically receive much more network data than a Windows XP, which can result in network spiking. This isn’t necessarily a problem in itself, but it does increase the importance of actually using TCP/IP QoS (Quality of Service), which is installed and enabled by default in Vista.


The problem with Vista's new-fangled network stack
All this automatic tuning of the Vista network stack sounds great in theory, but the problem is that some clients don’t support TCP window scaling, or do but don’t have it enabled. Additionally, some firewall products also don’t support it. In either scenario, the result is dropped packets which affects network performance horrendously -- your traffic is literally dropping into a black hole, never to be seen again.

So if you’re experiencing excessive network lags on your Vista machine, especially compared to non-Vista machines, it might be worthwhile disabling auto-tuning. Do this by opening up an administrative Command Window (right-click, Run as administrator), and type in the following command:

netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled

You may also need to type in:

netsh interface tcp set global rss=disabled

The changes take effect straight away, with no reboot needed. Bear in mind that this is a global change, so it may really be worth your while to sit down and nut through your network's QoS settings to get things running happily without disabling auto-tuning.

Personally, I needed to RDP to that server as a matter of urgency, and disabling auto-tuning definitely did the trick.

[FutureCow]

I miss the registery tweak to change the recording time before and after the show.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Media Center\Settings\VideoSettings

Change the recorded time before and after.

recordingsoftpostpadding

recordingsoftprepadding


Does thisone works for you?