Microsoft's discontinued Media Center suite can now unofficially...

alphanumeric said:

As far as I know Media Center was never ever included in Windows 10. If it's installed in Windows 8.1 it's removed during the upgrade to Windows 10. This is a hack to add it back to Windows 10. I'm just wondering if anybody tried this trick in 10240 Consumer Release or if it's just meant for Insider builds. I haven't gone to the MDL site yet. Maybe I'll go have a look see. A lot of the posts there just say you have to be a member to view this and I'm not all that interested in signing up to a site like that. I'm actually surprised its still out there.

@alphanumeric and anyone else wondering. I am no longer an insider since the 29th when I upgraded to W10. This works for me to, installed with no issue and works.

Well, Windows DVD Player looks and sounds like crap compared to
Windows Media Center, which looks and sounds amazing on most DVD's

I am running Windows 10 x64 ver 10240.

At first I tried several times to install Windows Media Center, following the instructions exactly. With no result. The scripts didn't seem to be running.

I finally got it to work with the following procedure. Don't know which of these steps made the difference.

1. First I reset the default apps settings to Microsoft recommended defaults:

-Settings, System, Default Apps, Reset to Microsoft recommended defaults. press RESET.

2. I extracted the WindowsMediaCenter_10.0.10134.0.zip file as a folder on my Desktop (previously it was extracted to my Downloads folder).

3. I opened a Command Prompt (Admin) window. Then didn't touch this command prompt window until Windows Media Center was installed.

-Right Click Start Button, select Command Prompt (Admin).

4. On the Desktop, open the extracted folder "WindowsMediaCenter_10.0.10134.0"

-Right Click on Uninstaller.cmd Run As Administrator. Wait until it completes.

-Right Click on _TestRights.cmd Run As Administrator. Wait until it completes. If it opens another Command Prompt window run Installer.cmd, otherwise reboot and then run Installer.cmd.

-Right Click on Installer.cmd Run As Administrator. Wait until it completes. When the message "Press any key to exit." appears in the Command Prompt Window, press a key and close the Command Prompt Window and close any other open Command Prompt Windows then Reboot.

5. The Windows Media Center icon should now be in the All Apps Menu under "Windows Accessories" folder, "Media Center".

If you have problems installing Windows Media Center, hopefully this will work for you, also.

Ninetailz said:

Well VLC and MPC-HC can fill in those gaps for windows media center, if you are watching anime in windows 10 (which i doubt)

I have. :)

groze said:

@Trust_No1

Vlc will play some encrypted media. I don't use it, the question of it being legal in the U.S. As I said in another post, I recall a court case in U.S. that the judge allowed a person to download the file to play dvds on other operating systems on because it fits the definition of fair use and he already bought the dvd. The copyright office still claims you can't download that file to play the dvd.

I don't know how Windows VLC decryptions works. VLC for Windows can play encrypted dvds on most windows operating systems provided you have a dvd player.

Using an unofficial version of Microsoft's WMC is probably illegal too.

The redistribution of the files is certainly illegal, however some of us have paid for Media Center on the systems we upgraded from so it's fair game imo.

Ok, thanks for the replies from those that tried it. I may give it try on my Media PC.