Hacking Windows 7 Media Center

Adding Apps to Extras Library – Easy Way

by Michael Healy @ 6:47 am on January 18th, 2009 in windows 7 with 4 Comments and Permalink

Adding applications or games to the Extras Library is probably one of the most desirable features of serious media center users.  Despite this Microsoft has neglected to add a simple and user friendly way to accomplish the task.  It should be a simple task, go through a gui wizard, choose your desired app, and hit finish. Maybe in the future but for now there is another way that’s almost as easy.

  1. Create a shortcut to your desired application/game and copy it to the clipboard (ctrl+c)
  2. Open Windows Explorer (Win+E)
  3. Navigate to C:\Users\YOUR USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Media Center Programs
  4. Paste (ctrl+v) your shortcut in this folder
  5. Restart Media Center

This method doesn’t support icons currently however, it displays a basic box with the shortcut name in text.  Perhaps Microsoft or some endevouring 3rd party will support this a little better after the official Windows 7 release.

4 Comments


L4ST
Comment #2237 from L4ST [Reply]

doenst work on RC here, maybe have to reboot

Comment left July 22, 2009 at 7:02 pm with Permalink

mike
Comment #4859 from mike [Reply]

Anyone have any idea how to delete audio tracks from within media center(not player)? I will often listen to podcasts and after I finish I would like to be able to delete them from within media center…

Comment left November 16, 2009 at 1:24 am with Permalink

angruss
Comment #6555 from angruss [Reply]

This may be old news, but if you have an MCL file, you can simply edit it in notepad to describe the new app and then use the directions above to have it in MCE with an icon and description.

Comment left January 12, 2010 at 12:50 am with Permalink

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